The Large Hadron Collider has detected a new particle, marking the 80th discovery by the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) announced on Tuesday.
The newly identified particle has been named “Xi-cc-plus.” Scientists believe this particle—similar to a proton but about four times heavier—could help deepen understanding of the unusual behaviour of quantum mechanics.
All matter around us, including the protons and neutrons that form the nucleus of atoms, is made up of particles called baryons. These baryons are composed of three quarks, which are the fundamental building blocks of matter.
Quarks exist in six types, known as “flavours”: up, down, charm, strange, top, and bottom. Each flavour has its own mass, electric charge, and quantum characteristics.
In theory, there are many possible combinations of baryons formed from different quark mixtures, but most are extremely difficult to detect.
To discover them, the Large Hadron Collider accelerates particles to extremely high speeds in an underground ring before smashing them together. These collisions allow scientists to briefly observe how particles decay and then work backward to determine the properties of the original particle.
The newly discovered “Xi-cc-plus” particle is made up of two charm quarks and one down quark.
In contrast, a normal proton consists of two up quarks and one down quark. Because this new particle contains two heavier charm quarks instead of up quarks, it has a significantly greater mass.
Vincenzo Vagnoni, spokesperson for the Large Hadron Collider beauty (LHCb) experiment, said this marks “only the second time a baryon with two heavy quarks has been observed.”
He added that it is also the first new particle discovered following upgrades to the LHCb detector, completed in 2023.
According to him, the discovery will help scientists test theories of quantum chromodynamics, the model that explains the strong force binding quarks into particles such as baryons and mesons, as well as more unusual forms like tetraquarks and pentaquarks.
Back in 2017, the LHCb experiment had already identified a similar particle composed of two charm quarks and one up quark.
The new particle is expected to have a lifetime about six times shorter than the earlier one, making it much more difficult to detect, according to the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN).
The Large Hadron Collider is a 27-kilometre (17-mile) underground ring located about 100 metres beneath the border of France and Switzerland, where it accelerates and collides protons at extremely high speeds. It is best known for confirming the existence of the Higgs boson—often called the “God particle”—in 2012.
This latest discovery comes as CERN is planning to develop an even larger accelerator, the Future Circular Collider, aimed at further exploring the fundamental mysteries of the universe.
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