<ul class="summary-list"><li>A subatomic particle called the muon is wobbling far more than leading physics models can explain.</li><li>Its unusual behavior could be evidence of a fifth force of nature or a new dimension.</li></ul><p>Physicists at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory have found more evidence that a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/muon-experiment-physics-hidden-force-universe-2021-4">subatomic particle is behaving unexpectedly</a>. And the reason could be evidence of a new, fifth force of nature.</p><p>Currently, there are four known forces of nature: gravitational, electromagnetic, and the strong and weak nuclear forces. These four forces help us describe how the universe works.</p><p>But there are still cosmic wonders we don't understand — mysteries that the discovery of a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fifth-force-of-nature-could-unlock-the-dark-universe-2016-8">fifth force of nature</a> may help solve.</p><h2>The magnificent muon and its unusual wobble</h2><p>In 2021, physicists using the Muon g-2 experiment at Fermilab noticed a certain type of subatomic particle, called a muon, was wobbling more than expected.</p><p>Scientists at Brookhaven National Lab had <a href="https://science.nasa.gov/confirmed-muon-wobble-remains-unexplained#:~:text=How%20fast%20do%20elementary%20particles,widely%20in%20physics%2C%20is%20incomplete.">witnessed</a> a similar phenomenon 20 years earlier, in 2001, but this unusual behavior has remained unexplained, puzzling physicists for over two decades.</p><p>Muons are similar to electrons — the tiny particles that zip around atomic nuclei — but are 200 times more massive; hence their nickname, "fat electrons."</p><p>These fat electrons can penetrate objects like X-rays, Aylin Woodward reported for Insider, and have been used to help scientists <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hidden-corridor-great-pyramid-egypt-giza-cosmic-rays-scientists-2023-3">uncover a hidden chamber</a> in Egypt's Great Pyramid and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/muons-help-map-magma-inside-volcanoes-predict-eruptions-2021-11">peer inside the guts of volcanoes</a>.</p><p>Now, they may help physicists unlock a new force of nature. </p><div type="image" title="Illustration of an atomic nucleus surrounded by electrons." height="776" width="1024" msid="102735864" hostid="261"></div><p>"Like electrons, muons have a tiny internal magnet that, in the presence of a magnetic field, precesses or wobbles like the axis of a spinning top," Fermilab said in a <a href="https://news.fnal.gov/2023/08/muon-g-2-doubles-down-with-latest-measurement/">statement</a> last week.</p><p>To study these muons, physicists fired them into a superconducting magnetic ring and measured how they behaved as they raced around thousands of times at close to the speed of light. </p><p>What physicists observed was that the muons were wobbling far more than could be predicted with the <a href="https://www.energy.gov/science/doe-explainsthe-standard-model-particle-physics" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Standard Model of Particle Physics</a> — a mathematical guide that physicists have used for the last 50 years to explain and understand the subatomic realm.</p><h2>A 5th force of nature</h2><div type="image" title="quantum fabric spacetime einstein rosen bridge wormhole worm hole space shutterstock_309841256" height="1600" width="2400" msid="102735865" hostid="261"></div><p>If the equations set down by the Standard Model can't explain the muon's unusual wobble, physicists will be forced to look for other explanations.</p><p>One possible explanation is that the muons' behavior is dictated by a fifth force of nature. Others could be the presence of a new exotic particle, the existence of a new dimension, or another unknown space-time property, <a href="https://www.livescience.com/physics-mathematics/wobbling-muon-experiment-could-reveal-a-5th-force-of-nature-if-the-results-hold-up" target="_blank" rel="noopener">LiveScience</a> reported.</p><p>"We're really probing new territory," Brendan Casey, a senior physicist at Fermilab said in the lab's press release. "We're determining the muon magnetic moment at a better precision than it has ever been seen before."</p><p>That said, there are two ways to use the Standard Model to describe the muon's wobble, and they offer conflicting results, per <a href="https://www.livescience.com/physics-mathematics/wobbling-muon-experiment-could-reveal-a-5th-force-of-nature-if-the-results-hold-up" target="_blank" rel="noopener">LiveScience</a>. </p><p>One way scientists hope to resolve the discrepancy is with more precise measurements. That's why Fermilab physicists collected four times more data this time compared to 2021, enabling them to reduce experimental uncertainty by a factor of two, LiveScience reported.</p><p>"We expect another factor of two in precision when we finish" analyzing the final three years of data, said Graziano Venanzoni, the co-spokesperson of the Muon g-2 experiment at Fermilab.</p><p>If the results reveal a fifth force of nature, it could help explain some of science's biggest questions, including: What is dark matter made of? What is dark energy? And why does the universe contain far more matter than antimatter?</p><p>Scientists realize that they may have to move beyond the confines of the Standard Model in order to answer these questions. And mysteries like the muon's wobble are breadcrumbs leading the way to what could be the next revolution in physics. </p>

A weirdly wobbly 'muon' particle might revolutionize physics by revealing a 5th force of nature or another dimension

<ul><li> Tiny <keyword id="783560" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="subatomic-particles">subatomic particles</keyword> called muons aren’t moving according to the known laws of physics</li><li>An international team of 200 physicists believes that the behaviour could be explained by a fifth fundamental force of the universe that is yet to be discovered.</li><li>This discovery could open the doors to new physics, but there’s still a one in 40,000 chance that it may just be a fluke.</li></ul>Just when humanity thought it’s got it all down, the universe throws a right hook for scientists to puzzle over a new unexplained phenomenon — like muons wobbling faster than they should be when they’re shot through an intense magnetic field.<br /><br />This is exactly what happened at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (<a href="https://news.fnal.gov/2021/04/first-results-from-fermilabs-muon-g-2-experiment-strengthen-evidence-of-new-physics/">Fermilab</a>) in the US. An international team of 200 physicists from seven different countries have so far been unable to solve the conundrum.<br /><br />        <div type="image" title="fermilab_edited" msid="81968085" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;The Muon g-2 experiment at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div><br />These tiny subatomic particles defied the known laws of physics to suggest that there may be a fifth fundamental force at play. And this puts up a challenge to the <keyword id="865261" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Standard-Model-of-physics">Standard Model of Physics</keyword>.<br /><br /><cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="What are muons?" comment="subhead" text="What are muons?"><span data-til="noop">What are muons?</span></cmsannotation><br />Fundamental particles are the building blocks of the universe. They’re smaller than an atom. And, the muon is one of them. It’s like an electron, but 200 times heavier. <br /><br />The particle is relatively unstable and only has a lifespan of 2.2 microseconds before it decays into an electron and two super-lightweight particles called neutrinos. <br /><br />    <div type="image" title="17-0188-23_edited" msid="81968171" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;PhD student, Paolo Girotti, works on equipment for the Muon g-2 experiment&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div><br />The results of the experiment at <keyword id="1781100" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="fermilab">Fermilab</keyword>, dubbed Muon g-2, agree with what was found during similar experiments at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in 2001. This means the mystery of ‘what is making the muon particle wobble’ is at least two decades old.<br /><br />“Although these first results are telling us that there is an intriguing difference with the Standard Model, we will learn much more in the next couple of years,” said Fermilab scientist Chris Polly, who is a co-spokesperson of the Muon g-2 experiment and was the lead graduate student on the Brookhaven experiment.<br /><br /><cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="How does the behaviour of muons go against the four fundamental forces of the universe?" comment="subhead" text="How does the behaviour of muons go against the four fundamental forces of the universe?"><span data-til="noop">How does the behaviour of muons go against the four fundamental forces of the universe?</span></cmsannotation><br />As of now, there are four fundamental forces in the universe — gravity, electromagnetism, weak force and the strong force. These forces determine how all objects, big and small, interact with each other.<br /><br />Aside from gravity, three of these forces are explained within the Standard Model of Physics — the theory that classifies all known elementary particles to represent physicists’ best understanding of our universe at the smallest scales. <br /><br />So, when scientists sent muons around a 14-metre ring and then applied a magnetic field, the particles were supposed to vibrate at a very specific rate as dictated by the Standard Model of Physics. But that’s not what happened. <br /><br />Instead, muons were wobbling at a much faster rate that couldn’t be explained by what we know in physics so far. “This is strong evidence that the muon is sensitive to something that is not in our best theory,” said Renee Fatemi, the simulations manager for the Muon g-2 experiment.<br /><br />  <div type="image" title="14-0180-28D_edited" msid="81968232" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt; The core component of the Muon g-2 experiment is a 50-foot-wide superconducting electromagnet. When muons orbit around the storage ring at nearly the speed of light, they interact with the magnetic field and the quantum fields of the vacuum. &amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div><br />“This quantity we measure reflects the interactions of the muon with everything else in the universe. But when the theorists calculate the same quantity, using all of the known forces and particles in the Standard Model, we don’t get the same answer,” she described.<br /><br />The most likely explanation is that there may be another force of nature at play but another hypothesis is that it could also be the work of another undiscovered subatomic particle like leptoquark or the Z-prime boson. Another hypothesised particle called ‘beauty quark’ was put forth by scientists at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland just last month.<br /><br /><cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="What does this mean for physics as we know it?" comment="subhead" text="What does this mean for physics as we know it?"><span data-til="noop">What does this mean for physics as we know it?</span></cmsannotation><br />The Standard Model of Physics is a barometer. Any evidence that the Standard is right, or wrong, can help physicists figure out if they’re on the right track.<br /><br />The Standard Model of Physics is also far from complete. In addition to the unknown force affecting muons, it can’t explain dark matter and dark energy, which we now know makes up most of our universe.<br /><br />The latest discovery has a one in 40,000 chance of being a fluke, which is far from the margin of error to proclaim an official discovery. The results presented on April 7 are only 6% of the total data that the muon experiment is expected to collect in the coming years.<br /><br />“Of course the possibility exists that it’s new physics. But I wouldn’t bet on it” said Sabine Hossenfelder, a physicist at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Study, on <a href="https://twitter.com/skdh/status/1379821021348368386">Twitter</a>. <br /><br /><strong>SEE ALSO:<br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/failed-stars-may-have-a-cosmic-speed-limit-to-how-fast-they-can-spin-otherwise-theyll-break-apart/articleshow/81963376.cms">'Failed stars' may have a cosmic speed limit to how fast they can spin — otherwise they'll break apart<br /></a><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/share-prices-of-tcs-hcl-tech-mindtree-and-other-it-stocks-are-on-fire-ahead-of-q4-earnings/articleshow/81961821.cms">The tech stocks binge is hotting up again with the second wave of COVID-19</a><br /><br /></strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/osiris-exoplanet-was-formed-at-least-a-100-times-farther-away-from-its-sun-than-where-it-is-now-and-has-six-chemicals-in-its-atmosphere-to-prove-it/articleshow/81953394.cms"><strong>The first-ever exoplanet discovered was born at least a 100 times farther away from its Sun than where it is now — and has six chemicals in its atmosphere to prove it</strong></a>

Meet muons — tiny subatomic particles that indicate there could be a fifth fundamental force of nature

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A new study suggests subatomic particles called <keyword id="2348854" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="muons">muons</keyword> are breaking the laws of <keyword id="55984" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="physics">physics</keyword>.</li><li>This may mean a mysterious force is affecting muons, which would make our understanding of physics incomplete.</li><li>It could be the same force that's responsible for <keyword id="86041" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="dark-matter">dark matter</keyword>, which shaped the early universe. </li></ul><p>One of the most ubiquitous subatomic particles in the universe, the muon, seems to be misbehaving.</p><p>Or at least, it isn't behaving the way physicists expect. In fact, muons are deviating so much from what the laws of physics suggest that scientists are beginning to think their playbook is either incomplete, or there's some force in the universe we don't yet know about.</p><p>Muons are like fat electrons: They have a negative charge but are 207 times heavier than electrons. Thanks to their charge and a property known as spin, they act like tiny magnets. So when muons are immersed in another magnetic field, they experience an infinitesimal wobble.</p><p>But in a <a href="https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.141801">study released this week</a>, physicists at the <keyword id="1781100" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="fermilab">Fermilab</keyword> in Illinois reported a discrepancy between how much muons <em>should</em> be wobbling and how much they actually did wobble during a lab experiment.</p><p>The difference is substantial enough that many scientists are convinced particles or forces we haven't yet discovered must be involved. The finding, in other words, offers new evidence that something mysterious has played a role in shaping our universe - something that's missing from the existing rules of physics.</p><p>"In this respect, the new measurement could indeed mark the start of a revolution of our understanding of nature," Thomas Teubner, a theoretical physicist from the University of Liverpool who was not involved in the research, told Insider. </p><p>It's possible that this unknown phenomenon is also linked to dark matter, the shadowy cousin of matter that was created just after the Big Bang and makes up a quarter of the universe.</p><h2>Shooting muons in a circle at the speed of light</h2><p>When cosmic rays penetrate Earth's atmosphere, they create muons. Several hundred muons strike your head every second. They can penetrate objects like an X-ray does - a few years ago, scientists used muons to discover a hidden chamber in Egypt's Great Pyramid - but the particles only last for two-millionths of a second. After that, they decay into clusters of lighter particles.</p><p>During its brief existence, each muon remains oriented around a single point, in the same way a compass always points north. But when it encounters a magnetic field, a muon's orientation shifts slightly away from that point. That crucial wobble, known as the g-factor, is what the Fermilab experiment is examining. </p><div type="image" title="brookhaven fermilab magnet" height="1118" width="1680" msid="81990684" hostid="261"></div><p>Fermilab is a US Department of Energy project with ties to the University of Chicago that's devoted to the study of particle physics.</p><p>Scientists there can produce muons for study by running a beam of protons super quickly into metal using <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-a-muon-accelerator-could-unravel-some-of-the-universes-greatest-mysteries-131415">a particle accelerator</a>. So the researchers behind the new study took these muons and funneled them inside a circular electromagnet 50 feet in diameter. The muons then traveled at nearly the speed of light around the circle more than 1,000 times.</p><p>When muons in the machine decay, ultra-sensitive detectors can measure which direction the resulting smaller particles are moving. Physicists can then use that information to calculate where each muon's fixed point is.</p><div type="image" title="fermilab" height="534" width="800" msid="81990686" hostid="261"></div><p>It should be possible to calculate the precise amount muons will wobble using the Standard Model of physics, which encompasses everything we know about particles' behavior. But the Fermilab team found that their muons' wobble did not match those expectations.</p><p>Instead, it was off by one-third of one-millionth of a percent.</p><p>That difference may seem mind-bogglingly small, but Teubner said it's actually "a milestone for particle physics." </p><p>And it's unlikely to be the result of error: The team found that there's only a 1 in 40,000 chance the discrepancy in their measurement was due to random chance. </p><p>"This is strong evidence that the muon is sensitive to something that is not in our best theory," Renee Fatemi, one of the Fermilab muon experiment managers, said in <a href="https://news.fnal.gov/2021/04/first-results-from-fermilabs-muon-g-2-experiment-strengthen-evidence-of-new-physics/">a press release</a>.</p><h2>A 20-year mystery</h2><div type="image" title="tess stars first science image" height="1019" width="987" msid="81990688" hostid="261"></div><p>This isn't the first time muons have not behaved in the way <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword>'s best theories would predict. </p><p>In 2001, the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York ran a similar experiment using the same giant electromagnet. Those results also showed that muons' wobble in the lab deviated from what it should have been. But those findings had a smaller statistical significance than Fermilab's: There was a 1 in 1,000 chance it could have been a fluke.</p><p>Now, the Fermilab results confirm what Brookhaven physicists discovered 20 years ago - and that "has made the discrepancy which was already seen with the old result more intriguing," Teubner said.</p><p>Fermilab is expected to release data from two more similar experiments within the next two years. A fourth experiment is also already underway, and fifth is in the works.</p><h2>Whatever is influencing muons could have a link to dark matter</h2><div type="image" title="cdms dark matter fermilab reidar hahn" height="450" width="600" msid="81990689" hostid="261"></div><p>According to Teubner, it's possible that some force that's not in the <a href="https://home.cern/science/physics/standard-model">Standard Model</a> of physics could explain the muons' whack-a-doo wobbles.</p><p>That force, he said, may also explain the existence of dark matter, and possibly even <keyword id="1198268" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="dark-energy">dark energy</keyword> - which plays a key role in accelerating the expansion of the universe. </p><p>"Theorists would find it appealing to solve more than one problem at once," Teubner said.</p><p>One hypothesis that could apply to both muons and dark matter, he added, is that muons and all other particles have almost identical partner particles that weakly interact with them. This concept is known as supersymmetry.</p><p>But Fermilab's existing technologies aren't sensitive enough to test that idea. Plus, Teubner added, it's could be the case that the mysterious influence on muons isn't linked to dark matter at all - which would mean the rules of physics are inadequate in more ways than one.</p>

A new experiment has broken the known rules of physics, hinting at a mysterious, unknown force that has shaped our universe

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A hidden corridor has been discovered within the Great Pyramid of Giza using cosmic rays. </li><li>The corridor is 30 feet long and located near the entrance of the 4,500-year-old structure. </li></ul><p>A hidden tunnel has been discovered within the Great Pyramid of Giza, a team of international archeologists announced in Egypt on Thursday.</p><p>The 30 foot long corridor is located on the North face of the 4,500-year-old pyramid and could lead to new discoveries within, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/scientists-discover-corridor-great-pyramid-giza-2023-03-02/">Reuters reported</a>. </p><p>"This discovery, in my opinion, is the most important discovery in the 21st century," <a href="https://twitter.com/TODAYshow/status/1631276032589193218?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Zahi Hawass</a>, former Egyptian minister of antiquities and archaeologist, said per the Today show. </p><p>Archaeologists believe the vaulted corridor was designed to help distribute the weight of the giant ancient wonder of the world.</p><div type="image" title="The vaulted corridor found in teh pyramid of Giza is shown here." height="1500" width="2000" msid="98370569" hostid="261"></div><p>"This corridor, it's protecting or reducing the pressure on something beneath it. Might be a chamber, might be something else," said Mostafa Waziri, Egypt's supreme council of antiquities. </p><p>Waziri said he hopes the purpose of the corridor will become clear "very soon." </p><p>"We're going to continue our scanning so we will see what we can do ... to figure out what we can find out beneath it, or just by the end of this corridor," he <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/scientists-discover-corridor-great-pyramid-giza-2023-03-02/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told reporters</a>, per Reuters. </p><p>The discovery was made as part of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pyramids-to-be-scanned-egypt-cosmic-rays-hidden-tombs-2015-10?r=US&amp;IR=T">Scan Pyramids</a>, a project started in 2015 that uses a technique called cosmic-ray muon radiography to investigate what lies within the pyramid without causing any destruction.</p><p>The technique relies on radiation fired through the pyramid. By reading the radiation that arrives at detectors placed around the pyramids, scientists <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2362300-hidden-corridor-in-egypts-great-pyramid-mapped-with-cosmic-rays/?utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=echobox&amp;utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1677763948-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">can infer</a> the internal structures of the monument, per New Scientist.</p><div type="image" title="A picture of the opening on the side of the pyramid is shown here next to a diagram showing the opening in the pyramid." height="957" width="1914" msid="98370572" hostid="261"></div><p>The cavity was first discovered in 2016, and early scans suggested there was an unknown void behind the opening. The entrance of the cavity, seen above, was likely hidden under the covering of the pyramid. </p><p>Thanks to the muon imaging, the scientists realized the structure was close enough to the surface that they could reach it with a tiny camera called an endoscope. By squeezing it through the smallest cracks, scientists were able to look at the inside of the cavity for the first time since it was closed. </p><div type="image" title="A picture of the chamber is shown here." height="1500" width="2000" msid="98370975" hostid="261"></div><p>This confirmed the presence of the cavity, which is thought to have a small upwards slope.</p><p>The findings were<a href="https://affiliate.insider.com?postID=6400a89da5f1ba5030141527&amp;site=bi&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2Fs41467-023-36351-0" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Communications on Thursday</a>. </p><p>"We knew the cavity was there, but of course it's totally different when you see it," Sébastien Procureur of the University of Paris-Saclay in France and an author on the study, told New Scientist. "We felt strange when we saw this."</p><p>This is a "fascinating discovery," Wojciech Ejsmond an Egyptologist from the Warsaw Mummy Project who was not involved in that work, told Insider in an email.</p><p>"Scientists were speculating about potential hidden rooms and cavities within the pyramid for decades. Now we have some indications of where to look for them. The discovery just by the entrance to the pyramid is very surprising since it is a very well-known spot," he said.</p><p>The hope is that the corridors could uncover previously unknown chambers. So far, four chambers have been uncovered, shown in the diagram below: the subterranean chamber, the queen's chamber, the grand gallery, and the king's chamber. </p><div type="image" title="A diagram of the pyramid drawn in 2017 shows the entrance location compared to the different chambers in the pyramid." height="1387" width="2000" msid="98370574" hostid="261"></div><p>The Great Pyramid at Giza was initially constructed in 2560 BC under the reign of Pharaoh Khufu.</p><p>The 450-foot tall burial monument was the tallest human-made structure on the planet until the Eiffel Tower was built in 1889.</p>

Archeologists found a hidden corridor in the Great Pyramid at Giza by using cosmic rays to map the ancient wonder

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container full"><div class="image on-image"><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/525444dcecad042e74e390c9-1200-924/ap120704021118.jpg?maxX=800" border="0" alt="Higgs Boson" width="800" /><p class="source">AP Photo/CERN</p><p class="caption">This image shows four high energy electrons (green lines and red towers) created from a real proton-proton collision in 2011 at <keyword id="6624175" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Cern">CERN</keyword>. The event shows characteristics expected from the decay of a Higgs boson.</p></div><p></p></div>Early Tuesday morning, the Royal Swedish Academy of <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">Science</keyword> <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/live-2013-physics-nobel-prize-2013-10" target="_blank">awarded this year's Nobel Prize in Physics</a> to two theoretical physicists - Peter Higgs and François Englert - who each independently predicted the existence of the Higgs boson in 1964.</p>
<p>The Higgs boson is impossibly difficult to explain. But the fact of the matter is, if the Higgs boson did not exist, we would not be able to explain why fundamental particles, like electrons, have mass.</p>
<p>Without it, we could not exist. The universe could not exist.</p>
<p>Right now, we are all surrounded by something called the Higgs field. The Higgs field is always on. It is invisible to us, but within the field are little bosons that are popping up and vanishing all the time. Particles obtain their mass by plowing through the field.</p>
<p>"If the field wasn't around you, the electrons in your body would not have mass, and you would disintegrate," said Paul Padley, a physicist at Rice University who has been involved with experiments to discover the Higgs boson.</p>
<p>That's probably why the Higgs boson was nicknamed the "God particle," a term that the majority of physicists abhor, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-inventor-of-the-higgs-boson-hates-that-we-call-it-the-god-particle-2013-4" target="_blank">particularly Mr. Higgs</a> who is an atheist.</p>
<p>There have been lots of alternative explanations to the Higgs boson. Ideas have come and gone in the 50 years that it took to actually find the particle bearing the name of today's <keyword id="52659" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="nobel-prize">Nobel Prize</keyword> winner.</p>
<p>On July 4, 2012, physicists announced that they had discovered a Higgs boson using the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Padley is one of thousands of scientists who contributed to the discovery, but a limit of three people can win the Nobel prize, so it went to the first people to theorize the process of how particles obtain mass - finding the particle is proof that this process is real.</p>
<p>Below you can find a lightly edited transcript of our interview with Padley, who describes the science behind the elusive particle and the significance of its discovery.</p>
<p><strong>Business Insider:</strong> Can we say for certain that scientists found a Higgs boson?</p>
<p><strong>Paul Padley:</strong> Initially there was hesitation - we knew we had found something. But at this point CERN and the Nobel Prize committee have basically declared that this is a Higgs boson.</p>
<p><strong>BI:</strong> You were involved in the discovery of the Higgs boson - as were thousands of other physicists on the experimental side. Do you believe it was fair to recognize just two recipients and why do you think this decision was made?</p>
<p><strong>PP:</strong> They [Englert and Higgs] published the first papers on this Higgs mechanism. There are other people who contributed theoretically, but they were a bit later. The Nobel Prize committee is very strict that it just goes by order of publication. I don't know how they could ever award a Nobel Prize for the experimental work. The experiments are worthy of the Nobel Prize, but the current rules of the Nobel Prize committee are that they only give it to up to three individuals, and we're a lot more than three individuals.</p>
<p><strong>BI:</strong> What is the biggest misconception about the Higgs particle?</p>
<p><strong>PP: </strong>Everybody has trouble understanding exactly what it is. It's really hard to explain it because it's quite intricate mathematically. Fundamentally, <keyword id="55984" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="physics">physics</keyword> is a mathematical science. And when you try to explain it using English, or any language other than mathematics, you're going to come up short. In order to learn the mathematics behind the Higgs mechanism, you really have to go to graduate school in physics.</p>
<p>The underlying theoretical framework is something called relativistic quantum field theory. Take quantum mechanics, put special relativity on top of that, and then you have to apply that quantum mechanics and special relativity to the Higgs field. It's another level of abstraction mathematically from regular quantum mechanics. And that's actually the right framework to do things in.</p>
<p><strong>BI:</strong> How did physicists know was properties they were looking for to confirm the existence of a Higgs particle?</p>
<p><strong>PP: </strong>In the Large Hadron Collider, we take two protons and smash them together and scan through the debris looking to see what came flying out. When you create a Higgs particle, you don't measure it directly. It falls apart right away. We troll through the data looking for decay patterns that would correspond to something like a Higgs boson. For example, the theory predicts that the Higgs boson would decay to two photons some fraction of the time. So we look to see if we see these two photon decays, and we do see that.</p>
<p><strong>BI:</strong> What role did you play in the discovery?</p>
<p><strong>PP:</strong> I worked for a number of years on helping to construct and commission the CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid) experiment and participated in the analysis of the data. In particular, at Rice here we helped contribute some of the electronics that selects Muons - a type of fundamental particle that comes flying out of the detector. One of the ways in which the Higgs boson was discovered was by measuring it decay into two Z bosons. Those two Z bosons subsequently sometimes decay into muons. There was a large U.S. contribution - over a dozen universities and 100 people - that helped build the muon system.</p>
<p><strong>BI:</strong> What's the practical benefit of this discovery?</p>
<p><strong>PP:</strong> There's often a huge delay between when the theoretical idea is confirmed and when it turns into practical devices. We're at the forefront of knowledge. We're just trying to understand the basic laws of physics. Hopefully some day those will be put to good use. I think the immediate practical benefit is the technological advances that we have to make in order to do these experiments. These experiments are so technically challenging that sometimes we have to invent technology.</p>

What Is A Higgs Boson? 

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/59fa839c58a0c15d1f8b50ce-2000/pyramids-giza-egypt-camel-rider-khufu-great-pyramid-shutterstock654844426.jpg" alt="pyramids giza egypt camel rider khufu great pyramid shutterstock_654844426" data-mce-source="Shutterstock" data-mce-caption="A photo illustration of the pyramids of Giza in Egypt." /><p class="source"><span>Shutterstock</span></p><p class="caption">A photo illustration of the pyramids of Giza in Egypt.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong>The Great Pyramid of Giza is the largest and oldest in Egypt, was built for the Pharoah Khufu around 2560 BC.</strong></li><li><strong>Researchers spent two years studying the pyramid using muons - high-speed particles created after cosmic rays strike Earth's atmosphere.</strong></li><li><strong>Muons can penetrate deep into rock and reveal hidden voids and chambers to special film and detectors.</strong></li><li><strong>Using muons, physicists detected a void at least 100 feet long above the Grand Passageway leading to Khufu's tomb.</strong></li><li><strong>No one knows what the void is, but at least one archaeologist believes it's a not a room or chamber filled with artifacts.</strong></li></ul><hr /><p><br />More than 4,500 years after their construction, the Pyramids of Giza continue to flaunt their secrets.</p><p>A team of more than three dozen researchers on Thursday announced the discovery of a huge and unexplored void in Khufu's pyramid, also called the Great Pyramid - the largest of three main structures in Giza.</p><p>What's more, the team used cosmic rays to locate the void and estimate its size through millions of tons of rock. The cavernous space is roughly 100 feet long and sits almost directly above the Grand Gallery: a towering passage that leads to the tomb of Pharoah Khufu.</p><p>"This void was hidden in the construction of the pyramid. It is not accessible and we needed this new technique, at the right time, to identify it and to discover it," Mehdi Tayoubi, a co-founder of the HIP Institute and a leader of the research effort, called <a href="http://www.scanpyramids.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ScanPyramids</a>, told reporters during a Wednesday press briefing.</p><p>The research group published its findings Thursday <a href="http://doi.org/10.1038/nature24647" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">in the journal Nature</a>.</p><p>"A lot of people tried to dig some tunnels looking for chambers," he added. "But as far as I know, no one has tried to dig something in this area. There was no theory expecting to find something as big as the Grand Gallery here."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/59fa839a58a0c169008b55c8-2000/scanpyramids-big-void-3d-artistic-view-inclined-option.jpg" alt="ScanPyramids Big Void 3D Artistic view inclined option" data-mce-source="ScanPyramids/HIP Institute" data-mce-caption="An illustration showing where researchers used cosmic rays to locate a void in the Great Pyramid of Giza." data-link="http://www.scanpyramids.org/" /><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.scanpyramids.org/">ScanPyramids/HIP Institute</a></span></p><p class="caption">An illustration showing where researchers used cosmic rays to locate a void in the Great Pyramid of Giza.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Tayoubi and his colleagues assert the "Big Void" is neither a data anomaly nor porous rock or loose rubble; in fact, the team is 99.9999% certain it exists, and a foremost expert on Egypt's pyramids agrees with that conclusion.</p><p>"I don't think this is bulls---," Mark Lehner, an archaeologist and Egyptologist at the <a href="http://www.aeraweb.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Ancient Egypt Research Association</a>, told Business Insider. "I put credence in the results, and I think they have indications of a large empty space."</p><p>However, Lehner - who served on an Egypt-based advisory committee overseeing ScanPyramids' project, yet wasn't involved in the work - said the void is not likely packed full of undiscovered mummies, golden talismans, and other ancient artifacts.</p><h2>How to probe a pyramid with cosmic rays</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/59fa839b4d05acb23f8b4c04-2000/known-grand-gallery-1.jpg" alt="Known Grand Gallery 1" data-mce-source="ScanPyramids/HIP Institute" data-mce-caption="A view inside the Great Gallery of Khufu's pyramid in Giza." data-link="http://www.scanpyramids.org/" /><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.scanpyramids.org/">ScanPyramids/HIP Institute</a></span></p><p class="caption">A view inside the Great Gallery of Khufu's pyramid in Giza.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Pyramids are confounding objects to study because they are so large; it's tough to see how they're constructed (and what they're hiding) without boring, digging, or blasting away their ancient and stony features.</p><p>"In the past it was easy. You have a scientist, and he says, 'I see a hidden door here,' and he can go and destroy this door and see what is behind it," Hany Helal, a pyramids expert at Cairo University and a ScanPyramids team member, told Business Insider during the press briefing. "Now, no one can allow for trial-and-error."</p><p>Khufu's pyramid is a especially difficult case: It's not only the largest and most ancient Egyptian pyramid, making its hidden internal structure all the more labyrinthine, but also a prized national heirloom.</p><p>Its construction of high and deeply embedded tunnels and chambers, like the Great Gallery, is also exceptional, Lehner said.</p><p>"In the popular imagination, it's the classic pyramid. But really it's the anomaly," Lehner added. "Nobody knew what Khufu did and no one did it afterward."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/55705bc869beddf0678e922a-800/crshower2nasa.jpg" alt="cosmic rays" data-mce-source="NASA" /><p class="source"><span>NASA</span></p><p class="caption">An illustration of cosmic rays generating muons and other high-energy particles in Earth's atmosphere .</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>However, the ScanPyramids team realized the same non-destructive technology used to peer inside volcanoes, called muography, might be used to probe structures like Khufu's pyramid.</p><p>Muons are fast-moving, short-lived elementary particles that constantly shoot down from the sky. They're made when cosmic rays from supernovas, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/neutron-stars-crash-ligo-gravitational-waves-periodic-elements-2017-10">merging neutron stars</a>, black holes, and other high-energy objects reach Earth and pummel air molecules.</p><p>This creates a shower of particles, including muons, of which thousands pass through our bodies every minute.</p><p>Muons pass through air unhindered, and get weakly absorbed or deflected by rock. So, by setting out special muon-detecting film and devices inside a pyramid, any cavities will show up as bright spots (since fewer are being absorbed by rock and more are making it to a piece of film or a detector).</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/59faac7058a0c11e008b5662-1998/khufu-great-pyramid-void-chamber-room-muon-scan-scnapyramids-hip-institute.jpg" alt="khufu great pyramid void chamber room muon scan scnapyramids hip institute" data-mce-source="ScanPyramids/HIP Institute; Business Insider" /><p class="source"><span>ScanPyramids/HIP Institute; Business Insider</span></p><p class="caption">A plot of muon data showing the big void. This view is looking upward from the Queen's Chamber.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Inside the Great Pyramid, however, just 1% of muons reach inner chambers.</p><p>This is why it took ScanPyramids two years to round up enough data: It takes months to expose a piece of film or run a detector, and the team used three different techniques to show beyond a doubt the void exists.</p><h2>Nothing to see here?</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/59fa839e4d05ac20008b556c-1920/scanpyramids-team-augmented-reality-review-of-scanpyramids-big-void.jpg" alt="ScanPyramids team Augmented reality review of ScanPyramids Big Void" data-mce-source="ScanPyramids/HIP Institute" data-mce-caption="Researchers explore the void they discovered in the Great Pyramid of Giza using augmented reality." data-link="http://www.scanpyramids.org/" /><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.scanpyramids.org/">ScanPyramids/HIP Institute</a></span></p><p class="caption">Researchers explore the void they discovered in the Great Pyramid of Giza using augmented reality.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>With the void discovered, but some details about it unknown, including its exact height and angle within the pyramid The group is also wary about labeling it a "room" or "chamber," since it's not certain that is the case.</p><p>"For the moment it seems very difficult to access this very big void," Tayoubi said, adding that more research will be needed to define its shape and extent without destroying and internal masonry.</p><p>Helal and others would ultimately like to bore a small hole into slabs of rock to reach the void, pop in a tiny yet capable robot, and explore the space remotely.</p><p>Lehner is not sure anything other than secrets about the structure of the pyramid will be found inside, though.</p><p>As he explained to Business Insider, Khufu's father determined what pyramids should look like, but it was under Khufu's reign that their construction was pioneered - and experimented with.</p><p>"Nobody is assessing the reality of, the fabric of the pyramid itself," Lehner said. "This pyramid looks very regular from a distance, but it was made with a considerable slop factor."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/59fa839b4d05acd7028b54e3-1400/khufus-pyramid-aerial-view.jpg" alt="Khufus Pyramid aerial view" data-mce-source="ScanPyramids/HIP Institute" data-mce-caption="An aerial view of the pyramids of Giza in Egypt." data-link="http://www.scanpyramids.org/" /><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.scanpyramids.org/">ScanPyramids/HIP Institute</a></span></p><p class="caption">An aerial view of the pyramids of Giza in Egypt.</p></div><p></p></div></div>For example, he said, there are many "relieving structures," including extra ceilings and spaces stacked above the King's Chamber near the pyramid's center. Lehner said ancient Egyptians over-engineered these sections as insurance policies against structural collapse - a problem risked both by the crushing mass of the pyramid and shoddier construction of regions filled with rubble and sand.</p><p>And that's where Lehner's self-described "shoot-from-the-hip" hypothesis about the void's purpose and role comes in.</p><p>"For all the world, I'll bet this is a relieving space for the Grand Gallery," he said, noting the feature exists right below the void. "They probably thought they needed some kind of relieving space to separate the slop factor from the fine masonry."</p><p>Put another way: The big void may be nothing more than a stone-roof attic that protects a magnificent attraction several stories below it.</p><p>ScanPyramids did not say how much its two-year effort cost in time for publication, but Lehner suspects it was expensive - and, despite commending the discovery, thinks such resources may be put to better use.</p><p>"Years ago I realized I had to turn my back to the pyramids to understand them," Lehner said. "To understand the pyramids, we need to understand how ancient Egypt worked - their economy, where they lived, what they ate, what drove them."</p><p>Lehner, who runs a field school for young archaeologists interested in ancient Egypt, added that the void's discovery is not really a "wow moment." More shocking, he said, was when archaeologists found <a href="https://www.livescience.com/55439-ancient-logbook-on-great-pyramid-unveiled.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a simple pyramid construction logbook</a>.</p><p>Such documents reveal much, much more about the pyramids than the monuments themselves, he added, and they're found only through traditional and relatively inexpensive archaeological field work - not bespoke particle physics devices.</p><p>"Would the people of a 3,000-year-old civilization be better served by finding a hole?" he asked. "Or a year's worth of Business Insider?"</p>       <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-pyramid-structure-ceres-saturn-moon-nasa-ahuna-mons-2016-9">This mysterious pyramid-shaped mountain in space is actually a gigantic ice volcano </a></h3>        <div>            <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/PMPkbhlH-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script>        </div>    </div>

The Great Pyramid of Giza is hiding a huge unexplored space - and scientists used cosmic rays to find it

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image"><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/52b211a669bedd323bbe02d4-640-605/sno-hi%20res.preview.jpg?maxX=480" border="0" alt="SNOLAB detector" width="480" /><p class="source"><span>SNOLAB </span></p><p class="caption">The neutrino detector in the SNO lab in Ontario.</p></div><p></p></div>This month astrophysicists found new evidence of dark matter - the so far invisible substance that scientists believe makes up 80% of our known universe.</p>
<p>The astrophysicists <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/1402.2301" target="_parent">detected strange X-ray emissions</a> from neighboring galaxies. They think the X-rays are from a decaying neutrino - but an entirely new kind of neutrino that only exists in theory.</p>
<p>Not only could they be the direct evidence of dark matter scientists have hunted for 80 years, neutrinos are getting a lot of attention in other fields. They could become the building block for some incredible new technology. [<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/why-you-should-care-about-neutrinos-2013-12" target="_blank">See five ways neutrino physics will change the world</a>]</p>
<p>At the end of 2013, scientists detected <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/evidence-of-neutrinos-outside-the-solar-system-found-at-the-icecube-detector-2013-11" target="_parent">neutrinos coming from outside the solar system</a> for the first time ever, opening up a new frontier in "neutrino astronomy" and the editors of the journal <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">Science</keyword> just named <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/science-predictions-for-2014-2013-12">neutrinos as an area of research to watch in 2014</a>.</p>
<p><strong>So, what is a neutrino?</strong></p>
<p>Neutrinos are fundamental particles of matter that are created by a specific type of radioactive decay, called beta decay, and from nuclear reactions like the ones that take place in the sun and nuclear reactors. Neutrinos were also produced during the Big Bang.</p>
<p>Scientists know there are three different types of neutrinos - the different kinds exist because the particles spin in different patterns.</p>
<p>It seems like we know a lot about these particles, but really we don't, considering we're basically swimming in them.</p>
<p>"In seconds, trillions of these particles are streaming through your body," astronomer Ray Jayawardhana, author of "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Neutrino-Hunters-Thrilling-Particle-Universe/dp/0374220638" target="_blank">Neutrino Hunters: The Thrilling Chase for a Ghostly Particle to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe</a>," said at a book signing on Dec. 10 hosted by the Secret Science Club.</p>
<p>Neutrinos are hard to pin down because they have almost no mass and interact weakly with other particles. It takes a giant chamber, like the one pictured above, full of extremely hot liquid hydrogen for scientists to be able to detect the presence of these particles.</p>
<p><strong>The discovery of neutrinos.<br /></strong></p>
<p>Though it has been theorized since 1930, we didn't discover the neutrino (in physical reality) until 1953. But its discovery was fundamentally important - it saved one of the most basic laws of science: The law of conservation of energy.</p>
<p>During beta decay, a neutron turns into a proton and spits out an electron. When scientists first measured what happens during beta decay they ran into a problem: The electrons were emitted with less energy than the reaction started with. It looked like energy was being lost somewhere in the beta decay process.</p>
<p>According to the law of conservation of energy, any reaction has to produce as much energy as it starts with. The scientists could not figure out an explanation for it, and some even considered giving up on the law.</p>
<p>But in 1930 the physicist Wolfgang Pauli came up solution, one that was considered insane for the time. He theorized that there must be another particle being emitted, it was just a particle that no one could see or detect.</p>
<p>According to Jayawardhana, Pauli had a great sense of humor about his crazy theory. He actually bet a case of champagne against himself and the ability of anyone to be able to detect the particle ever.</p>
<p>Finally, in the 1950s scientists confirmed that neutrinos exist.</p>
<p><img class="float_right" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/52b1e261eab8ea7c09533c25-807-605/neutrino-collision.png" border="0" alt="neutrino collision" width="800" style="font-size: 15px;" /></p>
<p>Generally, neutrinos pass right through the ground. But a small fraction of neutrinos will actually hit something - sending out decay products that we can measure. There are several different types of neutrino detectors, but the basic idea is to catch a large number of neutrinos and hope that some of these will crash into atoms.</p>
<p>The image on the right shows the first recorded observation of a neutrino. The photograph was taken inside the chamber of a neutrino detector in the Argonne National Laboratory outside Chicago.</p>
<p>The spot where the invisible neutrino collides with a proton is circled in red.</p>
<p><strong>Types of neutrinos.</strong></p>
<p>Scientists know there at least three different kinds of neutrinos: electron, muon, and tau. The different types are referred to as "flavors" and they correspond with the way the particle is oscillating. Jayawardhana said the particles change flavors all the time.</p>
<p>"It's as if chocolate flavored ice cream changed to vanilla, then to strawberry, then back to chocolate - it really is that strange," Jayawardhana said.</p>
<p>The scientists detected the particle by mixing cadmium chloride in a tank of water. Cadmium absorbs neutrons really well. When the neutrinos collide with protons they produce neutrons and positrons. The positrons then collide with electrons and give off gamma rays.</p>
<p>Now that scientists have built more sophisticated neutrino detectors that can reliably detect all three flavors of these particles and study them, Jayawardhana says neutrinos have tons of potential.</p>

You Searched For "what is a muon" and got 7 results

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