Three UMass Dartmouth physics professors are part of a team of scientists who discovered evidence of a rare subnuclear particle at Brookhaven National Laboratory. The discovery helps validate the central theory of modern physics called the standard model. In the standard model of physics, three quarks make a proton or neutron and two can combine to make another subatomic particle known as a meson.
Quarks are the most basic type of subatomic particle known.
The new particle is called an exotic meson, and was found after five years of research by 51 scientists from around the world. The researchers, including Professors John Dowd, Zvi Bar-Yam, and Wolfhard Kern delved deeper into the atom to find these particles. Three UMass post-doctoral and doctoral students, Dr. Edward King, Dr. John Cummings, and Paul Eugenio, also participated in the research. A number of undergraduate students also helped. They searched through the reaction products of billions of particle collisions to locate possible exotic mesons.