CERN Physicists Find Evidence of Ultra-Rare Particle Decay
Physicists at CERN have found evidence of an ultra-rare decay of a beauty particle into two muons, a process predicted by the Standard Model to occur once in every ten billion events. The findings align with theoretical predictions and represent a significant milestone in particle physics research.
Why it matters
Confirming these rare decays helps validate the Standard Model of particle physics and provides a foundation for exploring new physics beyond current theories.
Physicists with the LHCb Collaboration at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider announced today evidence for an extremely rare particle decay that scientists have chased for more than four decades, and their result agrees with the Standard Model of particle physics.
“What we found in these latest results is an incredibly rare decay of one of these beauty particles, where it turns into two even smaller particles called muons,” said Dr. Harry Cliff, a physicist at the University of Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory.
“This process only happens for one in every ten billion beauty particles, so it’s incredibly difficult to find.”
The decay involves the B 0 (B 0 d or B d ) meson, a short-lived particle containing a beauty quark, turning into a pair of muons, the heavier cousins of the electron.
The Standard Model predicts this should happen roughly once in every 10 billion B 0 decays.
Also covering this story
One other newsroom covered this event. We read that version too.
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in