What has really discovered the Tevatron?

The "bump": The obvious blue line represents an "excess" particles, which differ from the standard model (red line). Although it far from conclusive is this excess could be "new physics"-an unforeseen particles or new gauge boson are a new force of nature (from the publication "invariant mass distribution of Jet pairs produced in conjunction with a W boson in Ppbar collisions at Sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV"). Credit: CDF collaboration.

If you a little about the details of Wednesday buzz around the possible discovery of the "new physics" in the Fermilab Tevatron particle accelerator are blurry, don't worry, you're not alone. This is a big week for particle physicists, and also they will be with many sleepless nights in the coming months trying to capture what it all means.

That is, what happens if physicists thrive with observational evidence, something which they believe is that we have never before seen. Even bigger than that: we never expected to find something you see.

Analysis: Tevatron; shut down Would have an "afterlife"

Beyond the standard model

In the search for the edge of our understanding of the functioning of the universe massively powerful particle accelerator to be built.

The more powerful the accelerator, the more energetic collisions and the less frequently the particles produced.

SONDIERUNG OF ACCUMULATION OF THE UNIVERSE WITH THE LHC

The Higgs boson for example, a particle predicted by the standard model can only hope, using the immense power of the accelerator how to found Europe's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) or the US Tevatron.

So is what discovered the Tevatron?

In short, start after protons and antiprotons in the Tevatron collides over and over again, create a peculiar pattern. After the Proton-Antiproton collisions occurred a Flash energy causes other particles to form. The vast majority of these post-collision particles were expected displayed are, true to the theoretical framework of the standard model.

However, a very small number of particles seem emerged on the physics of the standard model predicted to come.

A rough analogy might be two conflicting frontal freight trains. From the resulting fire and slaughter dozens of cars form spontaneously, spraying of from.

In this the protons and antiprotons, and the cars could be fantasy collision that trains are post-collision particles in the Tevatron, most of them are common known and expected to be created (Fords, Chevvys, Honda's). However predicted a very small number and are considered "exotic" (a Ferrari here, a Lamborghini it). Suddenly, we are very interested in the exotic.

Analysis: Once upon a time, was the universe really weird

The CDF detector at's Fermilab Tevatron (Fermilab).

The "bump"

Back in the real world, a "bump" produced the energies of particles after the collisions were measured by physicists from the cooperation of CDF (Collider Detector at Fermilab) and she noticed in their data (in the picture above, blue line).

The physicist Viviana is Fermilab as CDF project Cavaliere in their live announcement on Wednesday-this bump - or "Surplus" described an anomaly, that "the standard does not" fit (the standard model are represented by the red line in the image particles).

Physicists tend to get excited when they see these kinds of irregularities in the energy profile of the collision products. It could mean that a new species was discovered by particles.

However, many, many collisions are required before a "bump", as this is produced. Countless billions of predicted particles generated by particle accelerator collisions can only a very small part "exotic" (or predicted by the standard model) are considered.

It is very weak as a camera, a picture of one, removed object. Longer exposure times are required to come for this object in the Center. Where the Tevatron collisions are many collisions over many months (or even years) required, before this "bump" in the background is displayed.

This bump is real, what exactly it?

"they are in fact two jets of particles, that if you give their Momenta together a mass peak' Add ["bump"] they may propose a new (unknown) particles verfallenden come" Jon Butterworth, a work with the ATLAS detector and physics writer for Britain's Guardian.co.uk LHC physics, told Discovery News.

A three Sigma event

The excitement around this statement particle is "unknown" tangible although Butterworth would like to stress, that this "bump" may not be real. "It could certainly still an anomaly." It is on the edge, "he said." "Statistically, the meaning is not large, and there are significant classification (such as the background), which could further undermine the significance." "I think they have done a decent job, and it is interesting, but quite far from convincing."

It is called a "three-Sigma event" is known, and this refers to the statistical certainty of a specified result. In this case this result has a 99.7% chance, properly (and a chance, 0.3 per cent be wrong). "" "Three Sigma is not seen as a"discovery"," Butterworth said in a previous article Discovery News. "Really, is a" five Sigma' as a discovery. Five Sigma is the "gold standard." "

So this statement Tevatron is an interesting result, but more work must be confirmed.

If it is real, Butterworth, said that the only possible standard model candidate the Higgs boson. But this is unlikely, he said, because other particles predicted by a ruined that Higgs does not exist. Therefore, it is unlikely that this is a Higgs signal.

"So, if not, that it some pretty strange and unexpected," Butterworth continued. "But if and as long as confirmed by my money on combination of statistical fluctuations for more data and other experiments, and systematic errors in the background estimation and Jet is measurement, and it is (sadly) fade away."

"Hope I'm wrong."

Publication: "invariant mass distribution of Jet pairs produced in conjunction with a W boson in Ppbar collisions at Sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV," CDF collaboration, 2011. ArXiv: 1104 0699v1 [hep-ex]

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