The new particle is a magnetic one. This never-before-seen particle was found using an experiment that would fit on a small kitchen counter.
Dark matter, which accounts for 85% of the total mass of the universe but only reveals itself through gravity, could be a candidate for this magnetic cousin.
The lead researcher of the team that made the discovery was a professor of physics at Boston College. It isn't every day that you find a new particle on your table.
Particle physics could be rewritten by surprise W boson measurement.
It has a magnetic moment, a magnetic strength or orientation that creates a magnetic field, which is different from the Higgs boson. It needs a more complex theory to describe it.
Particles emerge from different fields in the universe and some of them shape the universe's fundamental forces. Nuclear decay is governed by the weak nuclear force, which is caused by W and Z bosons. All of the particles in the universe were almost the same when it was young and hot. Physicists call it "symmetry breaking" because the W and Z bosons gained mass and behaved very differently from the other particles in the universe. How did these weak force-mediating particles get so heavy?
The particles interacted with a different field. The W and Z bosons were created byurbations in that field.
"However, typically only one symmetry is broken at a time, and therefore the Higgs is just described by its energy."
There is more to the theory than meets the eye.
Multiple symmetries are broken together, leading to a new form of the theory and a Higgs mode that requires multiple parameters to describe it.
The new magnetic Higgs cousin was described in a study in the journal Nature. The decay of the original particles into other particles shows the presence of the Higgs.
When room-temperature quantum materials mimicked a specific set of oscillations, called the axial Higgs mode, the other side of the equation came into existence. The researchers used the light to observe the particle.
A table measuring about 3.2 feet by 1 meter by focusing on a material with a unique combination of properties was used to find the particle. Tritelluride is a quantum material with a 2D crystal structure. The density of the charge is periodically enhanced or reduced as the electrons self organize into a wave.
Over time, the size of these charge density waves can be adjusted to produce a mode of symmetry.
The team created the mode by sending a laser light into the crystal. The light scattered and changed to a color of lower frequencies in a process known as Raman scattering. The team found that the electrons move in a circle in the material with the help of the axial Higgs mode, and that this mode must be magnetic.
We were looking at the light scattering properties. The initial hints of something new were discovered when we looked at the symmetry of the response. It is the first magnetic Higgs to be found and indicates the collective behavior of the electrons in RTe3 is unlike any state previously seen in nature.
This is the first time it has been observed, but particle physicists had previously predicted it and used it to explain dark matter. Scientists have never seen a state with multiple broken symmetries.
Symmetry breaking can be thought of as a spinning coin that has two states. The coin becomes asymmetrical when it falls onto its head.
It is exciting that this double symmetry-breaking still jives with current physics theories because it could be a way of creating hitherto unseen particles that could account for dark matter.
The idea is to explain dark matter by creating new particles that have not been seen before.
The team spent a year trying to verify their results, despite the fact that they were surprised by the observation.
It was originally published on Live Science
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