Warwick Physicists Find Rarest Beauty Particle Decay Evidence
Physicists at the University of Warwick have identified evidence of an extremely rare 'beauty' particle decay at CERN's Large Hadron Collider. This discovery, achieved using machine learning, provides new insights into the 'Zeptoverse' and potential new forces in physics.
Why it matters
Understanding rare particle decays helps scientists test the Standard Model of physics and potentially uncover evidence of dark matter or new fundamental forces.
University of Warwick physicists are part of a UK-led team that has found the first evidence of an extremely rare 'beauty' particle decay at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC), after a hunt that began in 1984.
The result, from the upgraded LHCb experiment and supported by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), is the rarest decay of a beauty particle ever seen at the LHC.
Beauty particles are produced by the LHC in huge numbers, but each one lasts only around one and a half trillionths of a second before it decays. How they break apart can reveal what is happening in a realm physicists call the 'Zeptoverse', a world a billionth of a trillionth of a metre across, where new particles and forces may be hiding that could help explain mysteries such as dark matter.
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