First experimental signs of a New Physics beyond the Standard Model

[n2doc]

The Standard Model, which has given the most complete explanation up to now of the universe, has gaps, and is unable to explain phenomena like dark matter or gravitational interaction between particles. Physicists are therefore seeking a more fundamental theory that they call "New Physics", but up to now there has been no direct proof of its existence, only indirect observation of dark matter, as deduced, among other things, from the movement of the galaxies.

A team of physicists formed by the professor of Physics at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) Joaquim Matias, Javier Virto, postdoctoral researcher at the same university, and Sebastien Descotes Genon, from the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) / Université Paris-Sud, has predicted that New Physics would implie the existence of deviations in the probability of a very specific decay of a particle, the B meson. Detecting these small deviations through an experiment would be the first direct proof of the existence of this fundamental theory.

On 19 July of this year, at the EPS 2013 international conference on particle physics in Stockholm, scientists at the LHCb detector, one of the large experiments being conducted by the CERN's LHC accelerator, presented the results of the experimental measurements of the B meson decay. The measurements showed deviations with respect to the predictions of the Standard Model that were previously calculated by UAB and CNRS researchers. The team of scientists have proved that all these deviations show a coherent pattern and that has allowed them to identify their oringin from a unique source.

The results of their analysis point to a deviation from the Standard Model prediction of 4.5 sigmas. If confirmed, this is a major event, since scientists regard 3 sigmas as "scientific proof" of New Physics and 5 sigmas as a "discovery".

more

http://phys.org/news/2013-07-experimental-physics-standard.html

[xocet]

1. Interesting....

They don't seem to be quite there yet:

...

"We must be prudent, because more studies and more experimental measurements will be needed for confirmation", explains Joaquim Matias, "but if they are confirmed this is the first direct proof of New Physics, a more general theory than the current Standard Model". "If the Higgs completed the Standard Model puzzle, these findings could be the first piece in an even bigger puzzle, adds Dr Matias.

...

http://phys.org/news/2013-07-experimental-physics-standard.html

Here the paper noted at the end of the article:

Understanding the B -> K* mu+ mu- Anomaly

...

The four-body (see paper) decay and its plethora of different observables (1-15) is becoming one
of the key players not only in our search for New Physics (NP) in the flavour sector but also to guide us in the
construction of viable new models, which explains the remarkable experimental effort devoted to its precise mea-
surement (16-20).

...

http://arxiv.org/pdf/1307.5683v2.pdf

Here is the conference:

EPS HEP 2013 Stockholm (http://indico.cern.ch/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=218030)

[Lugal Zaggesi]

2. All this dark matter and dark energy

is pretty depressing.

[IrishAyes]

3. I feel the same way

when people obviously smarter than I cannot learn to spell correctly, even in a language perhaps not their own original.

'imply' x 'implie'

Or is it just my dyslexia working overtime today?