Scientists detect signals at the smallest scale ever explored
Summary
Researchers led by scientists in Cambridge analyzed collisions at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider and detected beauty quarks interacting with other particles at a scale about a billion-trillionth of a metre. The findings may help test theories about dark matter, but they do not detect dark matter itself; researchers say they need more data to investigate further.Key Facts
- The experiment used the Large Hadron Collider, which smashes particles together at high energy.
- The team studied beauty quarks, unstable particles that decay after about one and a half trillionths of a second.
- Researchers detected interactions at a scale described in the article as 100 billion times smaller than an atom.
- Some theories suggest dark matter could affect how particles interact at these scales.
- The international collaboration has agreed to a £150 million upgrade to the LHCb detector, designed to increase the rate of observed decays tenfold.
- UK Research and Innovation withdrew its share of funding for the planned upgrade amid cuts to other particle physics and astronomy projects.
- The LHCb collaboration’s leader said the funding decision could put the UK’s continued participation and training of early-career researchers at risk.
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