Five quark particle discovered

A particle with five quarks, instead of the usual three (or one
quark and one antiquark), has been discovered. Details are at
BBC
News
. The implications: new physics. The Standard Model
of Particle Physics that has been in place for about 35 years
needs serious revision, and quarks were only supposed to collect
in colour neutral, antisymmetric states, of which this is not.

2 replies on “Five quark particle discovered”

  1. New particle IS color neutral and asymmetric
    This 5-quark particle does not violate existing particle physics models, but it still called “exotic” because quarks seem to really prefer to group in pairs or threes. The real mystery is why 4 quark (2 quark/2 anti-quark) and 5 quark (4 quark/1 anti-quark) objects have been so hard to find.

    • Re: New particle IS color neutral and asymmetric

      This 5-quark particle does not violate existing particle physics models,
      but it still called “exotic” because quarks seem to really prefer to group
      in pairs or threes. The real mystery is why 4 quark (2 quark/2
      anti-quark) and 5 quark (4 quark/1 anti-quark) objects have been so
      hard to find.

      I guess I should have paid more attention to the article myself. The
      person who pointed it out to me told me that all five were matter quarks.
      This seems more like a meson/baryon bound state, which is still cool.

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