We may quickly see ‘zeptoverse’ – tiny world a billionth of a trillionth of a metre
After a staggering 42-year search, a team of researchers at Cern in Switzerland witnessed a one-in-10 billion event
Scientists have laid out their findings(Image: Getty Images)
British-led boffins are on the edge of their first glimpse into the zeptoverse – a miniscule world where new and exotic particles may be hiding. After a staggering 42-year search, a team of researchers at Cern in Switzerland witnessed a one-in-10 billion event – a subatomic particle, called a beauty meson, which decayed and then produced two even smaller particles called muons.
Beauty mesons exist for less than two trillionths of a second before decaying and only one in every 10 billion undergoes this specific type of decay – making muon particles incredibly difficult to detect.
The discovery, which was done using the Large Hadron Collider, could lead experts to find particles that exist at the scale of one zeptometre, which is one billionth of a trillionth of a metre.
Visualisation of the decay of a beauty particle into two muons(Image: LHCb Collaboration / Federico Leo Rede)
Dr Harry Cliff, who led the analysis team at the University of Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory, said physicists had been looking for this type of decay since before he was born. He said: “Seeing clear evidence of this rarest decay for the first time was thrilling.”
The find proves the power of the upgraded Large Hadron Collider and paves the way for glimpsing the existence of never-before-seen particles that exist at extremely small scales with very high energy levels.
Dr Cliff said: “We’re knocking on the door of the zeptoverse now. I can’t wait to see what we find as we explore deeper.”
Broadcaster and University of Manchester particle physicist, Professor Brian Cox added: “This is an important result and a beautiful example of how science advances – we cannot know whether this progress will be incremental or genuinely world-changing.”
The researchers are excited by their work(Image: Getty Images)
The British-led research has shone a light on the government’s decision to withdraw the UK’s £45m contribution to the Large Hadron Collider experiment – which may solve some of the biggest mysteries in physics.
Dr Cliff said: “It’s personally frustrating to think [that] UK scientists may no longer be able to continue doing this sort of research if we’re not paying our share of the cost.”
