Scientists Found Particle 'X,' Now What?!

For the first time ever, scientists at CERN have spotted a bizarre “X" particle in a recreation of the primordial soup that existed just moments after the Big Bang, using the LHC.

For the first time, scientists have spotted a bizarre “X” particle in a recreation of the primordial soup that existed just moments after the Big Bang. By smashing billions of lead ions together using the Large Hadron Collider, researchers were able to find just about 100 of these mysterious particles, but that could be the start of figuring out what exactly this “X” particle is made of. That’s why it’s just called the “X particle”; it’s not like it broke up with a physicist. There are a few different ideas on what it could be but no one is sure yet. Figuring it out could tell us more about what the universe was like a split second after it formed and help us better understand the protons and neutrons that make up the nuclei of atoms.

To understand the mystery, we’re going to have to talk about fundamental particles called quarks. It’s also possible to have particles made of just two quarks, or more specifically a quark and antiquark pair. These particles are called mesons. Binding quarks together inside mesons, protons, and neutrons are gluons, which carry the strong force. And here’s some shocking news: The strong force is really strong. So strong that an isolated quark has never been observed because they seem to be locked inside protons and neutrons in all but the most extreme conditions.

Now we come to the mystery of the X particle: we think it’s made up of four quarks but nobody has been able to figure out yet how they’re arranged. The two leading ideas suggest either the four quarks are tightly bound up in a teeny space less than a third of a femtometer across, or they could be paired up in two mesons that form something like a loosely bound molecule as large as five femtometers.

#seeker #science #space #xparticles #universe #bigbang #LHC

Read More:

Scientists make first detection of exotic “X” particles in quark-gluon plasma
"Today, X particles are extremely rare, though physicists have theorized that they may be created in particle accelerators through quark coalescence, where high-energy collisions can generate similar flashes of quark-gluon plasma."

Lead ion and proton: Close encounters of the third kind
"'Proton-lead collisions are something the LHC was not originally foreseen to do, but now it has even higher physics interest than had been expected...'"

LHC physicists discover five-quark particle
"Quarks were first theorized in 1964 by physicists Murray Gell-Mann and George Zweig. The two independently proposed that several of the particles thought to be fundamental—unable to be broken down into smaller parts—were actually made up of smaller particles called quarks. "

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[louisgiokas]

In the early 1970s I was working, as a student, at the High Energy Physics department at a large research university. One of the experiments we worked on was at Fermi Lab. This was when we were using optical methods (film). There were images of 250K interactions. About 10K were usable. From these we found about 10 lambda resonance particles, which was the main purpose of the experiment. This is the kind of result that many of these experiments. So, the low number of X particles is not unusual.

[RuroniSage_]

Ahh, the X particle and whatever the Webb Telescope sees when it’s calibrated, two things to look forward to this year!

[ozman]

Seeker is the only guy that actually speaks so well and easy to understand language in this complex stuff. Never seen such simple talking guy. I like this guy.

[LedmeisterDotCom]

"Now What?" You make the Powerpuff Girls of course. Wait, that was _chemical_ X. Sonuva...

[DeuceGenius]

this is insane. most people i know will live their entire life having no clue how smart humans can be and how much we can figure out

[beatboxfmj]

Now I just have more questions than answers

[SolSystemDiplomat]

Time to get off this planet. Life was discovered on the other side of the galaxy. Let’s go.

[cmilkau]

X is more like a category than a name. It is usually accompanied by a number, like "X(3872)" (I think it's the energy in MeV?), so which "X" are we talking about?

[vicegt]

Knowing how thing normally play out, it's going to be somthing unexpected and raise another 100 years of questions.

[admsmith]

The perplexing question here is how the heat of this experimental fusion, which is thousands of times greater than the sun’s heat, does not affect the device or the laboratory and simply melts it.

[ikaeksen]

Gratz on nearly 5 million subscriptions!!

[zeus.edwards]

the more they dig they will realize the closer they get, is the further away they are. one day they will realize that the building blocks of our universe actually has building blocks for the blocks.

[machariawachira]

The next logical step is to find the professor and make chemical X. The Powerpuff girls aren't gonna make themselves 😂

[betashaw]

The four particles arrangement is something like this. One in the center and the rest three branching out from the center, at equal distance. Some of them have Quarks as center, while some have Anti-quarks as center. Such that those with Anti-quark as center are equal to number of those having Quarks as Center.

[skaieknox]

Cool vid! So well explained! GREAT host!

[atibakojo]

So nobody ever says where the original elements came from to explode in the first place. And if there was nothing where was this going on?

[sizanogreen]

Nice! Learning more about our fundamentals is always amazing.

[aclearlight]

Lovely, comprehensible explanation, thank you!

[Majber]

probably nothing will happen with this in next 20 years

[leogama]

I can't believe. They finally found X!