First evidence of ultra-rare particle decay brings physicists closer to the Zeptoverse

First evidence of ultra-rare particle decay brings physicists closer to the Zeptoverse

First evidence of ultra-rare particle decay brings physicists closer to the Zeptoverse

Physicists at CERN's Large Hadron Collider have found the first evidence of an extremely rare decay in which a particle containing a beauty quark turns into two muons, a process expected only once in about 10 billion beauty particles. The search lasted more than 40 years. The result, from the upgraded LHCb experiment, carries 3.2 sigma significance, enough for evidence but short of a discovery claim, and lets scientists test the Standard Model more precisely and probe the Zeptoverse, a world at zeptometre distances where unknown particles and forces may hide. Upgraded detectors now collect data up to five times faster than before.

Physicists at CERN's Large Hadron Collider have found the first evidence of an extremely rare decay in which a particle containing a beauty quark turns into two muons, a process expected only once in about 10 billion beauty particles. The search lasted more than 40 years. The result, from the upgraded LHCb experiment, carries 3.2 sigma significance, enough for evidence but short of a discovery claim, and lets scientists test the Standard Model more precisely and probe the Zeptoverse, a world at zeptometre distances where unknown particles and forces may hide. Upgraded detectors now collect data up to five times faster than before.

Physicists at CERN's Large Hadron Collider have found the first evidence of an extremely rare decay in which a particle containing a beauty quark turns into two muons, a process expected only once in about 10 billion beauty particles. The search lasted more than 40 years. The result, from the upgraded LHCb experiment, carries 3.2 sigma significance, enough for evidence but short of a discovery claim, and lets scientists test the Standard Model more precisely and probe the Zeptoverse, a world at zeptometre distances where unknown particles and forces may hide. Upgraded detectors now collect data up to five times faster than before.