New type of subatomic particles discovered!

[Skyclad1uhm1]

Thought people here might understand pentaquarks better than in OT

 

[Fencer128]

Yes, it is interesting that you can have groupings of 5 quarks instead of just 2 or 3. I don't know what implications this has other than to reinforce the existing models used. I believe that this pentaquark has been predicted for while now.

Cheers,

Andy

 

[Skyclad1uhm1]

Not much interest in it it seems

I find it interesting that we seem to be able to figure out the smallest particles better than the brain. I'd say it will take at least half a dozen years before they can artificially replace parts of the brain.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: Skyclad1uhm1
Not much interest in it it seems

I find it interesting that we seem to be able to figure out the smallest particles better than the brain. I'd say it will take at least half a dozen years before they can artificially replace parts of the brain.

Well it's not like it's easy to get ahold of live brains and study them.
You can get all the atoms you want, and smash them together, or hit them with radiation. But if you want to study that same radiation's effects on a person or two, oh nooooo, that's a problem.

 

[devers]

Originally posted by: Jeff7

You can get all the atoms you want, and smash them together, or hit them with radiation. But if you want to study that same radiation's effects on a person or two, oh nooooo, that's a problem.

Hehe.

Well, I'm interested in this topic, Sky, thanks for posting it. I'm gonna do some more searching on it though, I'd like to see a more detailed analysis of the potential "far-reaching" consequences of this discovery. The linked article doesn't go into it at all. I took physics through time-dependent quantum mechanics a few years ago, but that's as far as I got before I got bored with formally studying physics. It has been a while since I read up on current physics discoveries casually too, so I need to find some articles that'll help me interpret what the potential consequences of this discovery are.

Anybody here feel they know enough about it to explain?

 

[karmapunk21]

that article, as i understood it, mentioned two major quark categories: baryons and mesons. Are particles in the nucleus (specifically neutrons and protons) classified as baryons or mesons?

 

[Fencer128]

Originally posted by: karmapunk21
that article, as i understood it, mentioned two major quark categories: baryons and mesons. Are particles in the nucleus (specifically neutrons and protons) classified as baryons or mesons?

Baryons and mesons are both types of hadron (particles composed of quarks). A baryon is composed of 3 quarks, whilst mesons are composed of a quark - antiquark pair.

Protons and neutrons are both baryons. Protons consist of 2 up and 1 down quark whilst neutrons consist of 2 down and 1 up.

Before you ask, baryons are a sub-group of fermions, which obey the Pauli exclusion principle (as opposed to bosons).

Electrons are leptons, which are fermions that are also fundamental particles (ie they cannot be broken down into quarks).

Hope that helps

Andy