'Ghosts' Found in CERN's Machine
Channel: Futureman19
Date: 11/11/2018

Follow me on Twitter [Futureman19]

CERN researchers are investigating the potential presence of a new, unexpected “ghost particle” which may have appeared during Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments.

Unexplained “bumps” appeared in data produced by the team’s multipurpose Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector, which may show traces of an as yet unidentified ghost particle around twice the size of a carbon atom. Two separate analyses of the data indicated a build-up of muons, or heavy electrons, in the detector – if the data is accurate, it indicates a new particle with a mass of 28GeV, around a quarter of the mass of a Higgs Boson particle.

The data bumps were more pronounced during low energy collisions than the more energetic collisions which took place after the LHC underwent an upgrade. It has been theorised this is due to the higher level of background particles produced by high energy collisions.

The CMS team will continue to investigate further the possibility of the ghost particle, which could take around a year to fully ascertain; and the CERN team working on the LHC’s other multipurpose detector, Atlas, is cross-checking its own data for similar bumps. CMS theorist Alexandre Nikitenko said: “If it is confirmed by Atlas it will be the real thing. It will be really something terribly new.”

It may take another year to find out if this particle is real or not, but as Science Alert notes, even if it is real it’s not exactly physics-breaking. “But it is strange – a mass that has formed where no mass was expected,” they said.

This isn’t the only particle news we’ve had this year. In fact, this isn’t even the only “ghost particle” news we’ve had, because in July, astronomers announced the discovery of neutrinos coming from an energetic galaxy 4 billion light-years away – a slightly different discovery, for sure though.

Perhaps more relevant was the news from September this year, when scientists suggested they “broke the Standard Model” with the detection of ultra-high energy cosmic neutrinos using the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA).

In March, there was news of the weirdly named “skyrimon”, a particle with ball lightning-like properties. And also in September, results at CERN hinted at a particle that seemed to defy the Standard Model.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Articles in this video:

Has new ghost particle manifested at Large Hadron Collider?
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/oct/31/has-new-ghost-subatomic-particle-manifested-at-large-hadron-collider

If ghosts were real, Brian Cox claims CERN would have found them by now
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/the-lhc-proves-ghosts-do-not-exist

Ghosts definitely don't exist because otherwise the Large Hadron Collider would have found them, claims Brian Cox
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/ghosts-brian-cox-large-hadron-collider-cern-real-truth-standard-model-physics-a7598026.html

A Physicist Explained Why The Large Hadron Collider Disproves The Existence of Ghosts
https://www.sciencealert.com/a-physicist-just-explained-why-the-large-hadron-collider-disproves-the-existence-of-ghosts

Anomaly In CERN Data Inches Us Closer To Discovering Physics Beyond The Current Model
https://www.iflscience.com/physics/anomaly-in-cern-data-inches-us-closer-to-discovering-physics-beyond-the-current-model/all/

Source of cosmic 'ghost' particle revealed
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-44786125

Ghost particle possibly detected at CERN
https://www.scitecheuropa.eu/ghost-particle-possibly-detected-at-cern/90386/

‘Ghost particle’ discovered at CERN Large Hadron Collider?
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/11/01/ghost-particle-discovered-at-cern-large-hadron-collider/

Scientists At CERN May Have Detected A New "Ghost Particle"
https://www.iflscience.com/physics/scientists-at-cern-may-have-detected-a-new-ghost-particle/

Incredible "Ghost Particle" Discovery Heralds A New Era In Astronomy
https://www.iflscience.com/space/incredible-ghost-particle-discovery-heralds-a-new-era-in-astronomy/all/

Ghost Particle – CERN Investigates Bizarre And Unexpected New Particle In Its Latest Dataset
https://www.borntoengineer.com/ghost-particle-cern-investigates-bizarre-and-unexpected-new-particle-in-its-latest-dataset