Science / Medicine : Subatomic Particle Found

Scientists have discovered a subatomic particle similar to the neutron that takes them a step closer toward confirming a theory explaining the basic structure of matter, researchers from the State University of New York said last week.

The particle, known as the “neutral charmed strange baryon,” had been predicted as long ago as 1974, but experiments conducted at the Cornell Electron Storage Ring confirmed its existence, said SUNY physicist Saj Alam. SUNY researchers used the particle accelerator at Cornell University to smash electrons against positrons. The collisions left behind clues to the nature of smaller particles that enabled the scientists to identify one of them, Alam said.

The discovery, made last year but reported this month in Physical Review Letters, nails down the existence of one more particle predicted by the generally accepted “quark” model of matter. That model theorizes that particles dubbed quarks and leptons are the basic building blocks of the universe, combining to form the larger particles that serve as the constituents of atoms. The theory predicted a slew of previously unidentified subatomic particles, many of which have been found since.