Researchers observe new unexplained particle states
Thursday, December 20, 2012 - 07:30
in Astronomy & Space
In the vast particle landscape, there are, to borrow a phrase, known knowns (the Standard Model, for example), unknown unknowns (exotic extensions of the Standard Model and beyond), and those ever-interesting known unknowns. A recent CMS observation perfectly fits into this third category. When looking at proton collisions where a J/ψ and a φ meson are produced, CMS observed two unexplained peaks in the data. The first of these structures is consistent with a similar observation made by the CDF collaboration at the Tevatron in 2009, known as Y(4140).