Unknown seeds discovered right on the stovetop

Researchers have discovered a new type of particle that is magnetic with the Higgs boson. While the discovery of the Higgs boson required the tremendous particle acceleration power of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), this unprecedented particle - known as the axial Higgs boson - was found by an experiment that Can fit on a small stovetop.

The axial Higgs boson - responsible for giving other particles their mass - could be a candidate for dark matter, which makes up 85% of the universe's total mass but is exposed only through gravity guide.

Physicists have discovered a particle like never before, right on the stovetop.

"When my students show me the data, I think it's not every day that you find it," said Kenneth Burch, a professor of physics at Boston University and lead researcher on the team that made the discovery. I saw a new bead on my desk."

The axial Higgs boson is different from the Higgs boson, first detected by the ATLAS and CMS detectors at the LHC a decade ago in 2012, because it has a magnetic moment, magnetic strength, or orientation that produces the magnetic field. Therefore, it requires a more complex theory to describe it.

The Higgs boson is produced in nature whenever such symmetry is broken, however, usually only one symmetry is broken at a time, and thus the Higgs boson is described only by the energy of it.

The theory behind the axial Higgs boson is more complicated. Burch, who along with colleagues described the new magnetic Higgs in a study published June 8 in the journal Nature, explains that the original Higgs did not associate directly with light, which means is that it must be made by smashing other particles with giant magnets and powerful lasers and cooling the samples to extremely cold temperatures. It is the decay of those original particles into other particles whose fleeting existence indicates the presence of the Higgs boson.

The size of these charge-density waves, which emerge above room temperature, can be adjusted over time, producing an axial Higgs mode.

Particle physicists have previously predicted the axial Higgs mode and even used it to explain dark matter, but this is the first time it has been observed. This is also the first time that scientists have observed a state with many broken symmetries.

The fact that this double symmetry breaking is still consistent with current physical theories is interesting, because it could be a way of creating hitherto unseen particles that could be dark matter. .

He added that adding this symmetry breaking through the axial Higgs mode is one way to achieve that. Although predicted by physicists, the observation of the Higgs boson along the axis surprised the team, and they spent a year trying to verify their results.