Researchers Pursue a Narrow Particle with Wide Implications
July 25, 2006Northeastern University researchers Pran Nath, Daniel Feldman and Zuowei Liu have shown that the discovery of a proposed particle, dubbed the Stueckelberg Z prime, is possible utilizing the data being collected in the CDF and DO experiments at the Fermilab Tevatron.
The Stueckelberg Z prime particle, originally proposed by Boris Kors currently at CERN, Geneva, Switzerland and Pran Nath at Northeastern University in 2004, is so narrow that questions had been raised as to whether or not it could be detected. This new research, published in the July issue of Physical Review Letters, confirms that it can. The results are of importance because the discovery of this particle would provide a clue to the nature of physics beyond the Standard Model and a possible link with string theory.
“It is exciting to know that the discovery of the proposed particle at colliders is indeed possible,” said Pran Nath, Matthews Distinguished University Professor of Physics at Northeastern University. “Physicists are always looking for what is next, what will lie beyond the Standard Model. These findings point us in the direction of those answers.”
Because of its extreme narrowness, the Stueckelberg Z prime particle resembles the J/Psi (charmonium) particle, whose simultaneous discovery in 1974 by Burton Richter and Samuel Ting earned them the 1976 Nobel Prize in Physics. However, unlike the J/Psi which is a bound state, the new particle is not a bound state but a proposed new fundamental building block of matter. What sets the new Z prime particle apart from all others is the mechanism by which it gains mass.
While in the Standard Model particles such as the W and Z bosons gain mass by the Higgs phenomena, the new Z prime particle gains mass by the Stueckelberg mechanism proposed by the Swiss mathematician and physicist Ernst Carl Gerlach Stueckelberg in 1938. While the Stueckelberg mechanism arises naturally in string theory, Kors and Nath were the first to successfully utilize it in building a model of particle physics.
“If the Stueckelberg Z prime particle were to be discovered, it could signify a new kind of physics altogether, a new regime so to speak,” said Nath. “The prospect is quite exciting.”
Source: Northeastern University
-
NASA small explorer mission celebrates ten years and forty thousand X-ray flares
20 hours ago |
4.5 / 5 (2) |
0
-
Cloud droplets, ready for prime time
Dec 28, 2011 |
5 / 5 (2) |
1
-
Book on Richard Feynman nets honors for Arizona State professor
Dec 21, 2011 |
not rated yet |
1
-
Opportunity rover finds mineral vein deposited by water
Dec 08, 2011 |
4.5 / 5 (12) |
5
-
Preparing for future human exploration: Measuring the radiation environment on Mars
Nov 22, 2011 |
5 / 5 (2) |
0
-
Engineers build first sub-10-nm carbon nanotube transistor
Feb 01, 2012 |
4.9 / 5 (31) |
30
-
Something old, something new: Evolution and the structural divergence of duplicate genes
Jan 31, 2012 |
4.6 / 5 (7) |
1
-
The hidden nanoworld of ice crystals: Revealing the dynamic behavior of quasi-liquid layers
Jan 30, 2012 |
5 / 5 (3) |
1
-
Stock market network reveals investor clustering
Jan 27, 2012 |
3.9 / 5 (23) |
8
-
Of microchemistry and molecules: Electronic microfluidic device synthesizes biocompatible probes
Jan 26, 2012 |
5 / 5 (1) |
0
-
Infinity by Particles
1 hour ago
-
what does negative resistivity mean
2 hours ago
-
Calculating Electrostatic force between parallel plates
3 hours ago
-
Strength of induced magnetic field inside an inductor
6 hours ago
-
increasing time of daylight
7 hours ago
-
Light & Sight
8 hours ago
- More from Physics Forums - General Physics
More news stories
Putting the squeeze on planets outside our solar system
(PhysOrg.com) -- Using high-powered lasers, scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and collaborators discovered that molten magnesium silicate undergoes a phase change in the liquid state, abruptly ...
6 hours ago |
4.7 / 5 (3) |
0
|
Hovering not hard if you're top-heavy, researchers find
Top-heavy structures are more likely to maintain their balance while hovering in the air than are those that bear a lower center of gravity, researchers at New York University's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences ...
7 hours ago |
5 / 5 (1) |
1
|
SLAC, Stanford team focuses on high-energy electrons to treat cancer
Accelerator physicists at SLAC and cancer specialists from Stanford are working on a new technology that could dramatically reduce the time needed for cancer radiation treatments. The team ran an initial experiment ...
10 hours ago |
5 / 5 (1) |
0
Measurements from high-energy collisions lead to better understanding of why meson particles disappear
For several years, physicists at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), USA, have studied an unusual state of matter called the quarkgluon plasma, which they ...
11 hours ago |
5 / 5 (1) |
0
Explained: Sigma
It's a question that arises with virtually every major new finding in science or medicine: What makes a result reliable enough to be taken seriously? The answer has to do with statistical significance -- but ...
Feb 09, 2012 |
5 / 5 (16) |
46
Google users warned of threat to smartphone wallets
Users of Google smartphone wallets were being warned on Friday that there is a way to crack pass codes intended to thwart thieves from going on illicit shopping sprees.
Anonymous knocks CIA website offline (Update)
The website of the Central Intelligence Agency was inaccessible on Friday after the hacker group Anonymous claimed to have knocked it offline.
Complex wiring of the nervous system may rely on a just a handful of genes and proteins
Researchers at the Salk Institute have discovered a startling feature of early brain development that helps to explain how complex neuron wiring patterns are programmed using just a handful of critical genes. ...
NASA sees wide-eyed cyclone Jasmine
Cyclone Jasmine's eye has opened wider on NASA satellite imagery, as it moves through the Southern Pacific Ocean.
New error-correcting codes guarantee the fastest possible rate of data transmission
Error-correcting codes are one of the triumphs of the digital age. Theyre a way of encoding information so that it can be transmitted across a communication channel such as an optical fiber o ...
The power of estrogen -- male snakes attract other males
A new study has shown that boosting the estrogen levels of male garter snakes causes them to secrete the same pheromones that females use to attract suitors, and turned the males into just about the sexiest ...