CERN experiment confirms existence of the pentaquark
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Basel (dpa) - Physicists working for the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva say they have demonstrated the existence of the pentaquark using the world's most powerful particle collider.
The pentaquark - made up of five of the theoretical particles called quarks as the name indicates - was first suggested in 1964, but previous claims to demonstrating its existence have not stood up to the replication test.
The CERN team says the subatomic particle was discovered as part of the LHCb experiment, one of the four major projects using the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
"The pentaquark is not just any particle," LHCb spokesman GuyWilkinson said.
"It represents the possibility of combining quarks -the fundamental components of protons and neutrons - in a pattern that has never yet been observed, despite five years of experimental searching."
Positively charged protons and uncharged neutrons go to make up the nucleus of atoms.
The pentaquark consists of four quarks and an antiquark.
The work of US physicist Murray Gell-Mann, who first suggested the existence of quarks and who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1969, provided the basis for postulating the pentaquark.
"The latest observations allow fresh insights into the stronginterplay and bonds of the quarks in particles like protons andneutrons," Ulrich Uwer, professor of physics at the University ofHeidelberg, said. "To date we understand little about this," said Uwer, who is spokesman for the German contingent working on the LHCb experiment.
"The pentaquark is a particle with a very short life. It rapidly decays into smaller particles, like the proton, which consists of three quarks."
Uwer added that combinations of six and more quarks were theoretically possible. The tetraquark - composed of four quarks -was confirmed last year using the LHC.
Whether the new findings will be of any practical benefit cannot be predicted at this stage, Uwer acknowledges.
But he notes the same was said at the time of Einstein's Theory of Relativity, whereas relativistic calculations are now essential for the Global Positioning System (GPS) to work.
