The logo of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Meyrin, near Geneva, September 29, 2014. – AFP PHOTO / FABRICE COFFRINI
    • 08/06/2016 at 12:05
    • updated

The hopes of having discovered a new elementary particle – who were born in a data galore of the largest particle accelerator in the world. – were crushed Friday at a scientific conference in Chicago

the bang has therefore hoped flop, data analyzes conducted since December 2015 has revealed that the fluctuation discovered by two independent teams was a statistical fluctuation rather than the sign of the existence of a new elementary particle, according to a statement from CERN (the European Organization for nuclear research), which manages the large Hadron Collider LHC -where scientists are crashing particles together at high speed in an attempt to detect new blocks of matter.

the LHC, which includes a tunnel in the form of 27-kilometer ring, has already led in 2012 to confirm the existence of the Higgs boson, considered the cornerstone of the fundamental structure of matter. “No new particle announced today at # ICHEP2016, but that’s how science works,” tweeted the Fermilab physics research center most prominent particles of the United States, and a competitor CERN.

on his blog “RésonAAnces” Adam Falkowski researcher had burst the bubble it a week ago in a post titled “After the hangover (after hangover),” where he retraced the story of the “discovery” and underlined with humor that succeeded the euphoria “five stages of grief.” It also recalls that more than 500 scientific articles have been written on what proved to be only a statistical fluctuation.

A craze Adam Falkowski explained by the fact that the fluctuation allowed for stroking the prospect of a major discovery opening opportunities beyond the standard Model. The same one who, for example, predicted the existence of the Higgs boson before it has been proven experimentally. “Since we have spent 30 years searching for proof of the fundamental theory that takes us beyond the Standard Model, our response was not disproportionate when we thought we had found a” writes senior research Laboratory of Theoretical Physics Orsay (France).

“Many small steps, but no great leap forward”, is resigned to his hand physicist Pauline Gagnon on his blog. “Today the ATLAS and CMS experiments have both reported that the promising effects observed at 750 GeV in the 2015 data was missing. It is true that this stuff is common in particle physics since the statistical nature of all phenomena that we observe, “she said.

Themis Bowcock, of the University of Liverpool, do not throw the baby out with the bath water. “The fact that this is not confirmed yet tells us a little about the essence of nature,” he explained. “It does not feed the frenzy sparked by new discoveries, but it is a step forward in scientific understanding of nature,” he said.

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