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| The Large Hadron Collider has just discovered Pentaquarks | |
| (about 11 hours later) | |
| The Large Hadron Collider has discovered a new kind of particle that scientists say could “show how our bodies are bonded together” - the pentaquark. | The Large Hadron Collider has discovered a new kind of particle that scientists say could “show how our bodies are bonded together” - the pentaquark. |
| Or rather, the world’s most famous underground particle accelerator has proved the existence of this particular type of sub-atomic matter – theorised half a century ago by Murray Gell-Mann and George Zweig but never seen in real life. | Or rather, the world’s most famous underground particle accelerator has proved the existence of this particular type of sub-atomic matter – theorised half a century ago by Murray Gell-Mann and George Zweig but never seen in real life. |
| Until now: researchers working on the LHCb detector on the accelerator witnessed signals produced when five sub-atomic particles combine together to form pentaquarks. | Until now: researchers working on the LHCb detector on the accelerator witnessed signals produced when five sub-atomic particles combine together to form pentaquarks. |
| A pentaquark, as its name suggests, is made up of five quarks, the building blocks of hadrons – which in turn make up atoms. Three quarks make up a proton or a neutron, while four quarks make up mesons – less common and more unstable and found in cosmic rays. | A pentaquark, as its name suggests, is made up of five quarks, the building blocks of hadrons – which in turn make up atoms. Three quarks make up a proton or a neutron, while four quarks make up mesons – less common and more unstable and found in cosmic rays. |
| A five-quark version, or "pentaquark", has been sought, but never found, ever since Gell-Mann and Zweig posited their existence in 1964. Gell-Mann’s work on quarks transformed scientists’ understanding of the structure of matter and won him the Nobel prize in 1969. | A five-quark version, or "pentaquark", has been sought, but never found, ever since Gell-Mann and Zweig posited their existence in 1964. Gell-Mann’s work on quarks transformed scientists’ understanding of the structure of matter and won him the Nobel prize in 1969. |
| Guy Wilkinson, spokesman for the LHCb experiment – based at the CERN laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland – said: "From the point of view of our experiment, we think it has fulfilled all criteria of discovery. | Guy Wilkinson, spokesman for the LHCb experiment – based at the CERN laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland – said: "From the point of view of our experiment, we think it has fulfilled all criteria of discovery. |
| “We have no other way of explaining what we have seen. But the scientific method is such that we have submitted a paper to a journal, the journal will consider it, then the community will judge. | “We have no other way of explaining what we have seen. But the scientific method is such that we have submitted a paper to a journal, the journal will consider it, then the community will judge. |
| The LHC, a circular 17-mile underground particle accelerator, has provided reams of data since it started smashing protons together at close to the speed of light in 2010. It was recently relaunched following a high-energy upgrade, although the pentaquark data was collected before this. | The LHC, a circular 17-mile underground particle accelerator, has provided reams of data since it started smashing protons together at close to the speed of light in 2010. It was recently relaunched following a high-energy upgrade, although the pentaquark data was collected before this. |
| The pentaquark discovery could tell scientists more about how black holes are formed - and will open up further avenues of research. | The pentaquark discovery could tell scientists more about how black holes are formed - and will open up further avenues of research. |
| Mr Wilkinson added: "What we want to do now is to look for other five-quark particles and try and understand more about their nature, and this may tell us something about how even the matter inside our bodies is bound together. " | Mr Wilkinson added: "What we want to do now is to look for other five-quark particles and try and understand more about their nature, and this may tell us something about how even the matter inside our bodies is bound together. " |
| Additional reporting by Reuters | Additional reporting by Reuters |