Large Hadron Collider discovers a new particle

CERN's Large Hadron Collider discovers the Xi-cc-plus particle, enhancing understanding of quantum mechanics and baryon behavior.

The Large Hadron Collider has discovered a new particle, the 80th identified so far by the world’s most powerful particle smasher, Europe’s CERN physics laboratory announced on March 17.

The new particle has been named “Xi-cc-plus”. Scientists have expressed hope that the particle — which is similar to a proton but 4x heavier — will reveal more about the strange behaviour of quantum mechanics.

All the matter around us, including the protons and neutrons that make up the nucleus of atoms, are made of baryons.

These common particles are composed of three quarks, which are fundamental building blocks of matter.

Quarks come in six “flavours”: up, down, charm, strange, top and bottom. Each has varying mass, electric charge and quantum properties.

In theory, there could be many different types of baryons that mix these flavours. However, most are extremely difficult to observe.