Submission + - After 50 Years, Physicists May Have Finally Found a Particle Made of Pure Force (sciencealert.com)
alternative_right writes: Quarks are fundamental subatomic particles that combine in trios to make up familiar baryons such as protons and neutrons, and gluons are the quantum 'Gorilla Glue' that binds their quark structure together.
For nearly 50 years, physicists have hunted for "glueballs", exotic particles predicted by this theory of the strong interaction.
Now, a collaboration working at a collider in Beijing says it has the clearest evidence yet that a known particle called X(2370) is dominated by one of these elusive states.
Physicists sifted through the wreckage of high-energy particle collisions to find strong evidence of this glueball, made predominantly of gluons â" massless force carriers of the strong interaction between quarks.
The same underlying physics also gives rise to the residual strong force that binds protons and neutrons into an atomic nucleus, much as photons carry the electromagnetic force.
For nearly 50 years, physicists have hunted for "glueballs", exotic particles predicted by this theory of the strong interaction.
Now, a collaboration working at a collider in Beijing says it has the clearest evidence yet that a known particle called X(2370) is dominated by one of these elusive states.
Physicists sifted through the wreckage of high-energy particle collisions to find strong evidence of this glueball, made predominantly of gluons â" massless force carriers of the strong interaction between quarks.
The same underlying physics also gives rise to the residual strong force that binds protons and neutrons into an atomic nucleus, much as photons carry the electromagnetic force.
