New Particle Possibly Identified

[djolds1]

http://science.slashdot.org/science/08/ ... 9248.shtml

An anonymous reader writes
"The LHC is out of commission, but the Tevatron collider at Fermilab is still chugging along, and may have just discovered a new type of particle that would signal new physics. New Scientist reports that the Tevatron's CDF detector has found muons that seem to have been created outside of the beam pipe that confines the protons and anti-protons being smashed together. The standard model can't explain the muons, and some speculate that 'an unknown particle with a lifetime of about 20 picoseconds was produced in the collision, traveled about 1 centimeter, through the side of the beam pipe, and then decayed into muons.' The hypothetical particle even seems to have the right mass to account for one theory of dark matter."

[Roger]

Duane, that is very cool, if true.

[Aero]

Here's the New Scientist link to the story.
http://space.newscientist.com/article/d ... atron.html
which contains a link to this 70 page collaborative paper by Fermilab.
http://arxiv.org/abs/0810.5357