“Why did this particle mysteriously disintegrate?” asks Popular Mechanics. Slashdot reader aeropage shared their report:
Scientists have proposed a new kind of subatomic particle to explain another particle’s mysterious disintegration. The kaon, a special case of meson particle, is made of one quark and one antiquark. All are part of the overall family called hadrons. When kaon particles decay, a very rare few undergo a change that has baffled scientists. Can it be explained by existing physics at all…?
If this kaon decay (de-kaon?) is validated, it represents something new in physics. The style of decay could indicate a new kind of particle altogether, or a new physical force at work to make the novel decay… Kaons have several known common ways of decaying, but the one in this paper is so rare that scientists weren’t sure it existed before now. Their model predicted they’d see less than a quarter of one instance of this decay in their sample — not four, which is a veritable fortune by comparison. What does it mean to see so many more instances?
“If confirmed, this requires physics beyond the standard model to enhance the signal.”
of this story at Slashdot.
Source:: Slashdot