Last week, researchers from Fermilab's Tevatron particle accelerator announced that they made a discovery critical to modern particle physics. But, while important in its own right, it's not the news many were waiting for.
For weeks, physics blogs have been buzzing with rumors that Fermilab's DZero group has found traces of something that could be a Higgs particle – sometimes dubbed the "God Particle." A still-theoretical beastie that is widely viewed as the mechanism for giving all other particles, and thus us, mass, the Higgs is the most sought-after object in particle physics today.
Last week's discovery changed that not a whit. Fermilab spokeswoman Judy Jackson said the still-outstanding rumors – which are only rumors, she cautioned – "have nothing to do with (the new baryon) They're not based on this."
The observation, made essentially simultaneously by Fermilab's other main experiment, the CDF group, was of a long-predicted "cascade b" baryon, the first to be found composed of an up, down and strange a down, a strange, and a bottom quark.
Analyzing this "triple scoop" particle will help scientists hone their understanding of how the strong nuclear force acts on the quarks that make up particles such as protons and neutrons.
By John Borland
