Physics is an ever-growing science, with new discoveries being made and new theories being tested on what seems like a daily basis. But one particularly interesting discovery from this year is the potential existence of a “ghost particle” found by scientists at CERN. No need to call the Ghost Busters—it may be weird, but scientists have this particle under control.
Scientists at CERN say that they noticed a signal that suggested a build-up of muons (or heavy electrons); this is what alerted them to the presence of the so-called “ghost particle.” In and of itself, this wouldn’t be all that surprising, but this particular particle is a little different.
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Scientists believe that this new particle could potentially be about twice as heavy as a carbon atom. For those of us not in the physics community, that’s pretty heavy, especially for a particle scientists don’t currently know about.
There are a lot of particles that scientists deal with on a daily basis. This one in particular has been dubbed a “ghost particle” because it (and its mass) appeared on scientists’ CMS detector (an instrument which of part of the particle accelerator) when no mass was expected.
L-Università ta’ Malta
The mysterious appearance when nothing was supposed to be there, as well as other qualities of this particle, are what have caused scientists to dub it their new “ghost particle.”
Apart from the fact that it’s mysterious and ghostly, scientists are understandably curious about the other qualities of this new particle. Some don’t even think it actually exists, and discussions are still taking place.
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It may not be the wildest discovery of the century, but the particle doesn’t fit with current theories, and would stir things up a bit if scientists could verify that it exists. Ghost particles and new theories of physics—just another average day at CERN!