Pentaquark - newly discovered atomic particles

Scientists working with large particle accelerators (LHC) have announced the discovery of a new type of particle, called pentaquark.

Discover new types of atomic particles

The discovery involves quarks - the fundamental particles that make up protons and neutrons in atomic nuclei. The new seed is called pentaquark , meaning that its structure consists of 5 quarks. Until recently, physicists have only seen atomic particles composed of 2 or 3 quarks.

The structural simulation of a pentaquark consists of 4 quarks and 1 anti-quark.(Photo: CERN)

The existence of the pentaquark was first conjectured in the 1960s. However, similar to the Higgs boson (also known as the "Lord's Particle"), scientists could not prove survival. in its place for decades until it was discovered in the LHC , the largest particle accelerator and the most powerful accelerator in the world, designed to study, break limits and defaults. of the standard model - the current basic theories of particle physics.

In 1964, two physicists Murray Gell Mann and George Zweig hypothesized the existence of quark subatomic particles independently. They propose that the key components of atomic particles - baryons and mesons - are best explained if they themselves are composed of other particles. Zweig uses the term "aces" for hypothetical new building blocks, but Gell-Mann calls them " quarks".

Zweig and Gell-Mann's models also suggest the existence of other quark states, such as pentaquark. This hypothetical particle is thought to be composed of 4 quarks and 1 anti-quark.

In the mid-2000s, many research groups claimed to have found pentaquark, but their findings were rejected by later trials."This is also the reason why we are very cautious when submitting our new research report," Patrick Koppenburg, co-coordinator of physics for the LHC machine at the European Nuclear Research Organization (CERN), said.

In the new study, physicists figured out how a subatomic particle called Lambda b decayed or transformed into three other particles inside the LHC. The results of the analysis revealed that intermediate states are sometimes related to the production of these three particles. These intermediate states are named Pc (4450) + and Pc (4380) +.

Physicist Tomasz Skwarnicki from Syracuse University (USA), a member of the new research team, said, he and his colleagues checked all possibilities of the signals and concluded that they could only be explained by pentaquark states.

LHC spokesman Guy Wilkinson commented: "The Pentaquark is not just a new type of particle . It represents a way of combining quarks in a form that has never been observed before, for over 50 years of experimental research. Studying its properties may allow us to better understand how ordinary matter constitutes. "