[1] THE SCHOLAR ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY SYSTEM (END)

[1] THE SCHOLAR ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY SYSTEM (END)
Chapter 168: Heavy Particles?

Translator: Translated Henyee Editor: Translated Henyee


Yan Xinjue asked, "Any?"


He walked over and stared at the computer screen. As he frowned, he said, “That does look strange. Our experiment is in the 1-10GeV segment, how does it go to 1TeV? "


Professor Grayer also looked at the screen.


There is a difference in magnitude of 1000 between GeV and TeV. This means that the particle beam in the collider tunnel has reached 1000GeV. Only 6GeV is needed to find pentaquarks.


1000GeV is an overkill.


When Professor Grayer heard Yan Xinjue's question, he smiled and explained in a relaxed tone.


“I've already said that this is for testing the collider status, so this is not an actual experiment. If we are not limited by our budget, we can show off the 10TeV energy zone. "


Professor Grayer just showed off.


He almost bragged.


That makes sense. All the world's top theoretical physicists are gathered here. CERN wanted to show off their equipment.


How else would they let the world know how crazy their machines are?


LHC can even reach 14TeV of collision energy, which means that each particle will carry 7TeV of energy.


How scary is that?


The unit of energy is used to describe the mass of a particle. For example, the atomic mass of hydrogen is about 1GeV, the Higgs particle discovered in 2012 is about 125 GeV.


Shangzheng's electron-positron collider is about 5GeV, lower in magnitude than LHC.


It took decades for China to catch up.


"... I didn't mean that the range of the experiment was strange," Lu Zhou said. He poked the computer screen and asked, "Are you not paying attention? There was an unusual impact near the 750GeV range. "


“This is not a sign of a collision. It was just one two-photon signal. But it is strange how it appears in the 750GeV zone, "murmured Professor Grayer. He rubbed his chin and continued, "But this is unusual. We always observe some special signals on ATLAS, so the data could be random errors. ”


Lu Zhou was still staring at the screen, he could not help but ask, "So this is ordinary?"


Yan Xinjue nodded, “Yes, right. The signal generated by collisions is only 1% of the data. Therefore we usually guess the conclusion and verify it with experiments. You'll get used to it. "


Particle physics is a very metaphysical thing.


Normally, atoms cannot be "observed directly". So to determine the existence of a particle, trust is necessary.


In particle physics, three standard deviations away from the mean are "signs", while five standard deviations are "discovery". Although the media often write "breakthrough progress" or "significant discoveries", most of them are just "signs".


Therefore, they need three sigmas to be a sign.


The peak of temporary characteristics means nothing.


Particles can only be confirmed by repeating the experiment and observing the particles on different detectors. When a particle's confidence is above five standard deviations, it can be counted as a "discovery".


Lu Zhou said nothing more.


Soon after, the experiment continued.


A series of green dots appear in the image with most of them concentrated in the 125GeV range.


However, Lu Zhou's attention was still concentrated on the 750GeV zone.


Suddenly, another jumping point appeared in the 750GeV zone.


Lu Zhou's heart went down. He then looked at Professor Grayer and asked, "What about the data on the CMS detector?"


There are many detectors in one orbit with ATLAS and the most sensitive CMS.


There was a simple way to test whether Lu Zhou's observations were merely illusions. He would be correct if the observations were observed by both detectors at the same time.


When Professor Grayer heard Lu Zhou question, he had a strange expression.


“Data collected by CMS is in charge of the lab upstairs. If you are curious, wait a minute and I can take you there. "


Lu Zhou immediately asked, "Then will the trial impact data be recorded?"


Professor Grayer nodded and said, “Usually it will be archived. There is not much research value but I can give you a copy. It's not secret information anyway. But let me remind you that since this is not public data, you cannot use this in your thesis. "


Yan Xinjue asked curiously, "What did you find?"


Lu Zhou thought and insisted on his own point of view. He said, “I think there's something wrong with the 750GeV energy zone. From a statistical point of view, this could be described as random, but it felt absurd. ”


Yan Xinjue asked jokingly, "Like from the point of view of a mathematician?"


Lu Zhou, "You can say that."


Yan Xinjue sighed and said, “I know the direction of your research is mathematical physics but I must remind you that even though mathematics is an important physics tool, it is not, not all physical phenomena follow mathematical laws. 750GeV is too big, Higgs boson is only 125GeV. I think these are just two photons, the signal might not even be a collision. ”


Yan Xinjue patted Lu Zhou on the shoulder and continued, "Don't get stuck in the energy zone outside of 10GeV. We're looking for pentaquark particles. If you are truly OCD, rest assured, you will not see any activity in the 750GeV energy zone anymore. "