[ad_1]
Scientists may have a new way of scrutinizing the "dark world" of physics.
In a new article, theoretical physicists claim to have a new theoretical particle research plan that, until now, has never been observed. These particles, called long-lived particles, or LLPs (LLPs), could provide a window to dark matter and dark energy, which together make up 95% of the universe. Dark matter exerts a gravitational pull on ordinary matter and it is thought that black energy causes the acceleration of the expansion of the universe. But neither one nor the other can be observed directly because their interactions with the luminous matter of the universe are weak, said Zhen Liu, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Maryland .
"They do not talk to us," Liu told Live Science, one of the researchers working on the new plan.
But LLPs could allow this dark world to communicate with the lighter. Liu and his colleagues believe that physicists could find them by modifying some of the detectors of the world's largest atom collector, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) near Geneva, Switzerland. [The 11 Biggest Unanswered Questions About Dark Matter]
Parallel worlds
The "dark world", also known as the "hidden sector", describes a set of hypothetical particles that go beyond the standard model of physics. (The standard model explains the protons, neutrons, electrons, and all the strange subatomic particles that accompany them, such as quarks, muons, neutrinos, and the Higgs boson.)
If all "normal" matter is in a valley, the dark world is in a parallel valley on which a ridge is surmounted, said Liu. It takes a lot of energy to climb that ridge, so the particles in the dark valley of the world interact strongly with each other, but slightly with those on the other side of the mountain. However, some particles could move from this dark energy barrier to the barrier we normally encounter through a process called quantum tunneling. These particles would probably not be the black matter equivalents of stable particles such as protons or neutrons, said Liu, but may be more similar to more unstable particles of the standard model.
It is these tunnel particles that researchers are interested in finding. But these particles, if they exist, are rare, said Liantao Wang, theoretical physicist at the University of Chicago. The LHC is launching protons at breakneck speed, generating 1 billion collisions per second. These collisions break the protons into a considerable number of particles known from the standard model. For scientists in search of the hidden sector, all these particles are just noise. The particles that interest them, Wang added, might appear only a few times a decade.
A new path
Wang, along with Liu and their colleague, Jia Liu, are the authors of the new article, published April 3 in the journal Physical Review Letters, suggesting a way to take a look at these rare particles.
It all depends on the moment. According to him, LLPs should be bulky and heavy compared to standard model particles mass-produced by the LHC. Their slowness is due to the big energy barrier they have to overcome to make a good impression on the world of normal matter, Liu said. But the rhythm of their snails is also useful for physicists. Most LHC elementary particles move at the speed of light and disintegrate rapidly. The Higgs boson, for example, disappeared in 10 to 22 seconds, turning into a more stable set of particles. [Photos: The World’s Largest Atom Smasher (LHC)]
LLPs, however, are expected to live slowly – up to one-tenth of a second, Wang said. They also travel more slowly than the speed of light. Therefore, adjusting the LHC detectors to look for particles that arrive late to their sensors should be the key to detect them.
"It's a very simple idea," said Wang, "but it's surprisingly effective."
Some of the adjustments will come naturally with LHC upgrades, which are currently underway, said Liu. The particle collider will open again in 2021, with detectors that will measure the time of arrival of a particle 10 times more precisely than what it is currently capable of producing, a- he declared. From there, he added, some software adjustments are needed to take advantage of the LHC's capabilities and to ensure that experimental physicists using the collider prioritize research. Now, Wang and Liu have said, they and their fellow experimenters have a series of meetings to make sure everyone is on the same page.
"It will happen," said Liu.
Originally published on Science live.
[ad_2]
Source link