WE MAY have glimpsed an odd member of the particle family tree.
Evidence of the odderon, a 鈥渜uasiparticle鈥� that arises when two protons smash together, has been found at the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, Switzerland. While not a particle, this blob of quantum energy and mass behaves a bit like one.
Physicists look for new particles in the debris left behind when particles such as protons are smashed together at high speed. But some collisions are more like glancing blows. In these cases, the protons can swap a number of gluons, the particles that help hold them together. Normally, an even number of gluons get swapped, but now physicists have seen evidence of an odd-number swap 鈥� an odderon.
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The LHC鈥檚 TOTEM experiment didn鈥檛 make direct measurements of odderons, but has seen indirect evidence that they exist. Odderons have been theorised since the 1970s. It has only recently become possible to generate them with the advent of high-energy colliders like the LHC.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淟HC finds hints of odd particle鈥�