Decay of X particles captured for the first time

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A Mysterious 'X Particle' Could Help Explain the Birth of Reality

Scientists achieved breakthrough detections of an elusive particle from the dawn of time at the Large Hadron Collider.

by Becky Ferreira
vice.com
January 25, 2022

In a breakthrough that opens a window into the birth of the universe, scientists have detected elusive “X particles” in the otherworldly aftermath of high-energy collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the most powerful particle accelerator on Earth.

These short-lived particles, which are called “X” because their internal structure is unknown, existed in the chaotic microseconds after the Big Bang, when the universe was filled with a churning subatomic soup called quark-gluon plasma. They are, however, exceedingly rare in the modern universe, leaving many of their properties shrouded in mystery.

That’s why scientists are so thrilled to have recorded the decays of about 100 of these X particles using the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS), a particle detector at LHC. The “result provides a unique experimental input to theoretical models” of X particle production and “of the nature of this exotic state,” according to a new study published in Physical Review Letters.