Florida State University physicists believe they have an answer to unusual incidents of rare decay of a subatomic particle called a Kaon that were reported last year by scientists in the KOTO experiment at the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex.
Florida State University physicists believe they have an answer to unusual incidents of rare decay of a subatomic particle called a Kaon that were reported last year by scientists in the KOTO experiment at the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex.
FSU Associate Professor of Physics Takemichi Okui and Assistant Professor of Physics Kohsaku Tobioka published a new paper in the journal Physical Review Letters that proposes that this decay is actually a new, short-lived particle that has avoided detection in similar experiments.
“This is such a rare disintegration,” Okui said. “It’s so rare, that they should not have seen any. But if this is correct, how do we explain it? We think this is one possibility.”
Kaons are particles made of one quark and one antiquark. Researchers study how they function — which includes their decay — as a way to better understand how the world works. But last year, researchers in the KOTO experiment reported four instances of a particular rare decay that should have been too rare to be detected yet.
This observation violates the standard model of physics that explains the basic fundamental forces of the universe and classifies all known elementary particles.
Read more at Florida State University
Image: FSU physicists proposed a new particle (yellow) to explain recently reported rare kaon (blue) decays to neutral pions (orange). CREDIT: Florida State University
