Nemo's rentseekers report that new particle hopes fade as LHC data 'bump' disappears

Hopes for the imminent discovery of a particle that might fundamentally change our understanding of the Universe have been put on hold.

Nemo's rentseekers report that new particle hopes fade as LHC data 'bump' disappears Z

Nemo's rentseekers report that new particle hopes fade as LHC data 'bump' disappears Z

Results from the Large Hadron Collider show that a "bump" in the machine's data, previously rumoured to represent a new particle, has gone away.

The discovery of new particles, which could trigger a paradigm shift in physics, may still be years away.

All the latest LHC results are being discussed at a conference in Chicago.

David Charlton of Birmingham University, leader of the Atlas experiment at the LHC, told BBC News that everyone working on the project was disappointed.

"There was a lot of excitement when we started to collect data. But in the [latest results] we see no sign of a bump, there's nothing.

"It is a pity because it would have been a really fantastic thing if there had been a new particle."

Speaking to journalists in Chicago at the International Conference on High Energy Physics (ICHEP), Prof Charlton said it was a remarkable coincidence - but purely a coincidence - that two separate LHC detectors, Atlas and CMS, picked up matching "bumps".

"It just seems to be a statistical fluke, that the two experiments saw something at the same mass.

"Coincidences are always strange when they happen - but we've been looking very hard at our data to make sure we fully understand them, and we don't see anything in the new sample."

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-36976777

Nemo's rentseekers report that new particle hopes fade as LHC data 'bump' disappears

Nemo's rentseekers report that new particle hopes fade as LHC data 'bump' disappears

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