We were expecting a big “bang”, the elementary particle is flop – The Point

The hopes of having discovered a new elementary particle – born thanks to a wealth of data in the largest particle accelerator in the world – were grounded Friday at a scientific conference in Chicago. The bang was therefore hoped flop, data analyzes conducted since December 2015 have 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, a statement of CERN (the European Organization for nuclear research), which operates the large Hadron Collider LHC.

READ incredible tunnels as CERN

LHC, which includes a tunnel-shaped ring of 27 km, this is where scientists are crashing particles together at high speed in an attempt to detect new blocks of matter. It has already 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 CERN competitor.

on his blog” RésonAAnces “the researcher Adam Falkowski had burst the bubble it a week ago in a post titled After the hangover (After the hangover), where he traced the history of the” discovery ” and underlined with humor that euphoria succeeded “the 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 that Mr. Falkowski explained by the fact that the fluctuation allowed to pet 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.

“Small steps, but no leap forward”

“given that 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 researcher at the theoretical physics Laboratory of 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 Liverpool University interviewed by telephone by AFP, 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.