A rare discovery at CERN could pave the way for new physics

Scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) have made a first-of-its-kind discovery that could change our understanding of the subatomic universe. They discovered an extremely rare decay of a particle called a charged kaon (K+), which turns into a charged pion (p+), a neutrino and an antineutrino. I didn't understand anything? Let's go.

the Particle decay This occurs when an unstable particle transforms into other, smaller or different particles. This happens because The original particle cannot remain stable, and when it decays (i.e. decays), it releases energy and creates new particles. An example is a neutron, which can transform into a proton, an electron, and an antineutrino.

This process is common in the subatomic universe and follows rules Standard form Particle physics. The speed of decay varies: some particles decay quickly, others take a long time. In laboratories, scientists study these decays to better understand the universe and, sometimes, to find new laws of physics. This is exactly where this rare decay comes into play.

The decay of a charged kaon, which is extremely difficult to capture, occurs less than once in every 10 billion decays, and has been shown to NA62 was observed through the experiment From CERN with a statistical significance of 5 sigma, which means that There is only a 0.00006% chance that this is an error. This discovery opens the way to new physical theories.

Accurate measurement

the Standard form It has been a very effective tool for explaining how molecules interact with each other. And yet it is It doesn't solve some of the greatest mysteries of the universeSuch as the nature of dark matter or the imbalance between matter and antimatter.

Therefore, scientists search for evidence of phenomena that go beyond this theory, and the decay of a charged kaon is one of these crucial events. Measuring the K+ decay in a charged pion and two neutrinos is particularly interesting because… Any slight discrepancy between predictions and observations could indicate the presence of new particles or as-yet-unknown forces.

This process has been observed before, but this is the first time it has been measured with such precision and reliability. To carry out the experiment, Scientists used CERN's Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) particle accelerator, which collides high-energy protons into a fixed target. From this collision, billions of secondary particles emerge, only about 6% of which are charged kaons.

The NA62 detector can then identify and measure these particles and their decay products with extreme precision. In the case of neutrinos, where they cannot be detected directly, their presence is inferred from the energy absent in the process.

New physics?

What makes this discovery even more interesting is that even though the observed decay is in line with predictions from the universe Standard formIt occurs 50% more frequently than expected.

While the model predicts that less than 1 in 10 billion kaons should decay in this way, scientists observed a rate of 13 in 100 billion. This deviation may indicate the presence of new particles or forces that have not yet been discovered.. Scientists involved in the study believe that because they got a different result than expected, they may be encountering new physics.

While the observed difference between expected and measured is not large enough to completely rule out the standard model, it is interesting enough to warrant further study.

By collecting new data and improving NA62's equipment, scientists hope to have a definitive answer in the coming years. If these discrepancies persist, we may be on the verge of a revolution in particle physics, similar to that caused by the discovery of the Higgs boson.