CERN scientists search for mysterious ghostly particles

This idea itself is not new, but now scientists seem to have found a way to test their theory experimentally.

The leadership of the European Center for Particle Research (CERN) has approved an experiment that will help prove the existence of such “ghosts”.

The device that allows this experiment to be carried out is more than a thousand times more sensitive than all existing analogues today.

To detect “phantoms,” it is planned not to collide particles with each other (as happens in the Large Hadron Collider), but to break them against a stationary solid surface.

Everything is ghostly…

What are these signature particles and why was a special method required to detect them?

Today it is generally accepted that all particle physics fits into the so-called Standard Model.

According to this theory, the material Universe known to us consists of only 17 types of particles – both well-known ones (for example, the electron and the Higgs boson) and those that are less well-known and have surprising names (like charm quarks, gluons and tau neutrinos). ).

Some of them can combine (in various combinations) to form slightly larger, but still tiny particles that make up the entire world around us – including stars in the most distant known galaxies. Others are responsible for the behavior of particles and their interactions with each other.

The problem is that the results of some experimental observations (for example, the movement of galaxies) convincingly indicate that the entire material Universe known to us is only about 5% of its [неоднократно измеренной различными способами] total mass.

The remaining Universe may partly (or even entirely) consist of “ghost” or “hidden” particles, which are considered to be phantom twins of the 17 particles of the Standard Model.

If they do exist, they would be incredibly difficult to detect because they rarely interact with the material world as we know it. Like ghosts, they easily pass through any material objects and cannot be detected by earthly instruments.

However, according to one of the versions within the framework of the same theory, in very rare cases, ghostly particles can decay into Standard Model particles, which can already be detected by existing detectors. The new tool significantly increases the likelihood of detecting this kind of decay by multiplying the number of head-on collisions.

Instead of colliding beams of accelerated particles with each other, as happens in most modern experiments, they are planned to be broken on a stationary solid surface – so that all the particles, and not just some of them, are scattered into smaller fragments.

One of the project leaders, professor at Imperial College London Andrei Golutvin, assures that this experiment “marks a new era in the search for hidden particles.”

“The new experiment provides a unique opportunity to solve several fundamental problems in particle physics at once, and we have the chance to detect particles that no one has been able to detect before,” he explains.

Hunting ghosts requires special equipment.

In routine experiments (such as the Large Hadron Collider), new particles can be detected up to one meter away from the collision site. However, ghostly particles can remain undetected and travel tens or even hundreds of meters before they begin to disintegrate and manifest themselves in any way. Therefore, during the new experiment, the detectors will be located much further away.

“Exploring an Unknown Landscape”

Imperial College professor Mitesh Patel says the new approach is “truly brilliant”.

“What really fascinates me about this experiment is that the hidden particles are right under our noses – but we can’t see their interaction (or rather lack thereof),” he explains.

“We are exploring a completely unknown landscape and believe that we will be able to see something interesting. You just need to take a good look.”

According to Claudia Ahdida, who works at CERN, the new experiment (SHiP) will be carried out on the basis of existing CERN facilities.

“We will use tunnels that have already been dug,” she says, “and generally try to make the most of existing infrastructure to create a tool that will help us find this hidden sector.”

The estimated cost of the planned new circular collider (FCC) is estimated at €15 billion. It should start operating by the mid-2040s, but will reach the peak of its potential no earlier than 2070.

But the search for new particles using the SHiP method could begin as early as 2030 and would cost about a hundred times less.

The researchers intend to try every possible approach to detect the particles, which they say will lead to one of the greatest and most breakthrough discoveries in the history of physics.