On July 5th, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) announced that scientists working on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have discovered three previously unknown subatomic particles, including a new type of pentaquark and a pair of tetraquarks that have been observed for the first time.
The new pentaquark illustrated as a pair of standard hadrons connected in a molecular-like structure. (Photo: CERN)
The Large Hadron Collider at CERN is the machine that discovered the Higgs boson, a particle believed to play a crucial role in the formation of the universe following the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago.
Scientists at CERN reported that they observed a new type of pentaquark and an unknown pair of tetraquarks, thereby adding these three particles to the list of hadrons discovered through the Large Hadron Collider.
These discoveries will help physicists gain a better understanding of how quark particles bond together to form composite particles.
Quarks are fundamental particles that typically connect in combinations of 2 and 3 to form hadrons such as protons and neutrons, which make up atomic nuclei.
However, in some rarer cases, these quark particles can combine in groups of 4 and 5, known as tetraquarks and pentaquarks.
“As we conduct more analyses, we are discovering increasingly strange types of hadrons,” said Niels Tuning, a physicist at CERN.
