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Mysterious new elementary particle?

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Kerry Sheridan advises that a “US atom smasher may have found new force of nature” (YahooNews, April 7 08:07 am)

Data from a major US atom smasher lab may have revealed a new elementary particle, or potentially a new force of nature that could expand our knowledge of the properties of matter, physicists say.[ … ]

While much remains a mystery, researchers agree that this is not the “God Particle,” or the Higgs-boson, a hypothetical elementary particle that has long eluded physicists who believe it could explain why objects have mass.

“The Higgs-boson is a piece that goes into the puzzle that we already have,” said Punzi. “Whereas this is something that goes a little bit beyond that — a new interaction, a new force.”

[ … ]

The US machine began its work in the mid 1980s, and is scheduled for shutdown later this year when its funding runs dry.

[ … ]

According to D0 physicist Gregorio Bernardi, the presentation of the findings created a stir.

“This is not yet what we call a discovery, since this is possibly a statistical fluctuation, but it is already quite significant, and could be evidence for physics beyond the standard model,” he said.

Comments
That would be a great news. Lets wait and see...Kyrilluk
April 11, 2011
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Hardly a coincidence! The whole point in the article is that they have this bump and its a "3-sigma" bump, but if they can only get some more time, they are sure it can become a gold-plated 5-sigma bump. Nope, not a coincidence.Robert Sheldon
April 10, 2011
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i.e. Not that it (the news) is not interesting, but rather that the timing of that [not not] interesting part being coincidently found in relation to the funding drying up.JGuy
April 10, 2011
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For some reason, the part "The US machine began its work in the mid 1980s, and is scheduled for shutdown later this year when its funding runs dry." seems to stick out more than the news. :PJGuy
April 10, 2011
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