Extraordinary W Boson Particle Finding Contradicts Understanding Of How Universe Works Science

These foundations are based on the typical model of particle physics, which is the best theory that scientists have to describe the most basic building blocks of the universe and what forces govern them. The W boson is an electrically charged fundamental particle that governs what is called a weak force, one of nature’s four fundamental forces, and therefore a pillar of the standard model. However, the most accurate measurement ever made of W Boson is in direct conflict with the rules of the standard model, according to a new study published in the journal Science. Ashutosh Kotwal, a physicist at Duke University who led the study, said the result took more than 400 scientists over 10 years to record and examine a “data set of about 450 trillion collisions”. These collisions – which were made by crushing particles together at astonishing speeds for their study – were made by the Tevatron accelerator in Illinois, USA. It was the highest energy particle accelerator in the world until 2009, when it was replaced by the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, which famously observed the Higgs boson a few years later. Tevatron ceased operations in 2011, but scientists at the Fermilab Collider Detector (CDF) have been counting the numbers ever since. Harry Cliff, a particle physicist at the University of Cambridge working on the Large Hadron Collider, said the standard model was “probably the most successful theory and scientific theory ever recorded – it can make fantastically accurate predictions”. But if these predictions turned out to be wrong, they could not simply be modified. “It’s like a house of playing cards, you pull a piece of it too much, the whole thing falls apart,” Cliff said. But the standard model is not without problems. For example, it does not take into account dark matter, which is considered to make up 95% of the universe. In addition, “some cracks have recently been exposed to the standard model,” the physicists said in a accompanying Science article. “In this context of indications that parts of the standard model are missing, we have contributed another, very interesting and somewhat large element,” Kotwal said. Jan Stark, a physicist and director of research at the French institute CNRS, said that “this is either a major breakthrough or a problem in data analysis”, predicting “quite intense discussions in the coming years”. “Extraordinary allegations require extraordinary evidence,” he said. The CDF scientists said they had determined the mass of the W boson with an accuracy of 0.01% – twice as accurate as previous attempts. They compared it to measuring the weight of a 350-pound (800-pound) gorilla with 40 grams (1.5 ounces). They found that it was different from predicting the standard model by seven standard deviations, also called sigmas. Cliff said that if you tossed a coin, “the chances of getting a five sigma result from stupid luck are one in three and a half million.” “If this is real, and not some systematic bias or misconception about how to do the calculations, then it is a huge assumption because it would mean that there is a fundamental new component to our universe that we have not discovered before.” However, he added: “If you are going to say something as big as we have broken the standard model of particle physics and there are new particles out there to discover, to convince people of it, you probably need more than one measurement from more than one measurement. ». CDF co-spokesman David Tobak said: “It is now up to the theoretical physics community and other experiments to watch and shed light on this mystery.” And after a decade of measurements, Kotwal is not over yet. “We follow the signs and do not leave any rocks, so we will understand what that means.”

title: " Extraordinary W Boson Particle Finding Contradicts Understanding Of How Universe Works Science " ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-28” author: “Alissa Lamm”

These foundations are based on the typical model of particle physics, which is the best theory that scientists have to describe the most basic building blocks of the universe and what forces govern them. The W boson is an electrically charged fundamental particle that governs what is called a weak force, one of nature’s four fundamental forces, and therefore a pillar of the standard model. However, the most accurate measurement ever made of W Boson is in direct conflict with the rules of the standard model, according to a new study published in the journal Science. Ashutosh Kotwal, a physicist at Duke University who led the study, said the result took more than 400 scientists over 10 years to record and examine a “data set of about 450 trillion collisions”. These collisions – which were made by crushing particles together at astonishing speeds for their study – were made by the Tevatron accelerator in Illinois, USA. It was the highest energy particle accelerator in the world until 2009, when it was replaced by the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, which famously observed the Higgs boson a few years later. Tevatron ceased operations in 2011, but scientists at the Fermilab Collider Detector (CDF) have been counting the numbers ever since. Harry Cliff, a particle physicist at the University of Cambridge working on the Large Hadron Collider, said the standard model was “probably the most successful theory and scientific theory ever recorded – it can make fantastically accurate predictions”. But if these predictions turned out to be wrong, they could not simply be modified. “It’s like a house of playing cards, you pull a piece of it too much, the whole thing falls apart,” Cliff said. But the standard model is not without problems. For example, it does not take into account dark matter, which is considered to make up 95% of the universe. In addition, “some cracks have recently been exposed to the standard model,” the physicists said in a accompanying Science article. “In this context of indications that parts of the standard model are missing, we have contributed another, very interesting and somewhat large element,” Kotwal said. Jan Stark, a physicist and director of research at the French institute CNRS, said that “this is either a major breakthrough or a problem in data analysis”, predicting “quite intense discussions in the coming years”. “Extraordinary allegations require extraordinary evidence,” he said. The CDF scientists said they had determined the mass of the W boson with an accuracy of 0.01% – twice as accurate as previous attempts. They compared it to measuring the weight of a 350-pound (800-pound) gorilla with 40 grams (1.5 ounces). They found that it was different from predicting the standard model by seven standard deviations, also called sigmas. Cliff said that if you tossed a coin, “the chances of getting a five sigma result from stupid luck are one in three and a half million.” “If this is real, and not some systematic bias or misconception about how to do the calculations, then it is a huge assumption because it would mean that there is a fundamental new component to our universe that we have not discovered before.” However, he added: “If you are going to say something as big as we have broken the standard model of particle physics and there are new particles out there to discover, to convince people of it, you probably need more than one measurement from more than one measurement. ». CDF co-spokesman David Tobak said: “It is now up to the theoretical physics community and other experiments to watch and shed light on this mystery.” And after a decade of measurements, Kotwal is not over yet. “We follow the signs and do not leave any rocks, so we will understand what that means.”