Fermilab Discovers New Particle Xi-sub-b (baryon)

Fermilab Discovers New Particle Xi-sub-b (baryon)

A Predicted Hadron Has Been Found

It is not the Higgs Boson (GOD Particle) , It is Xi-sub-b is a baryon, meaning it's made up of quarks, one of the fundamental building blocks of matter.

Its components are an up quark, a down quark, and a "strange" quark, which is a heavier variant of the down quark. A normal neutron, which doesn't typically disintegrate in an instant, is made up of two down quarks and an up quark.

In addition to the new particle, scientists at Fermilab say they may be on the verge of proving or disproving the existence of the long-sought-after Higgs-boson, which is thought to be the key to how mass itself comes into being. If it exists, Fermilab's Tevatron particle collider is "close to reaching the critical sensitivity" required to see its effects.

Baryons are particles formed of three quarks, in different configurations. The proton is a baryon that consists of two up and one down quark, and the neutron is two down and one up. The Xi-sub-b has an up quark, a strange quark (yes, that’s its real name) and a heavy bottom quark (again, real name), meaning that it weighs around six times as much as a proton or neutron.

A Hadron is a kind of particle, made of quarks. There are two kinds of hadrons, baryons (made out of three quarks) and mesons (made out of a quark and a quirky quark known as an antiquark).

The neutral Xi-sub-b belongs to the family of bottom baryons, which are about six times heavier than the proton and neutron because they all contain a heavy bottom quark. The particles are produced only in high-energy collisions, and are rare and very difficult to observe.

The Tevatron, located outside Chicago, will be shut down in September. The facility has been made obsolete by the Europe's Large Hadron Collider, currently the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator.