Brookhaven boffins boggle at baryons

It's a long way from being a “discovery”, but it's getting physicists excited: the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Lab is accumulating evidence that could point to so-called “strange” Baryons. Predicted by theory but never observed in the wild, the particles we're talking about are so named …

[Julian Bradfield]

Your description is rather misleading - it suggests, without quite saying, that strange baryons haven't been observed. It's certain heavier strange baryons, predicted by particular models, that haven't been observed - we've been playing around with strange (Sigma), doubly strange (Xi or Cascade) and triply strange (Omega) baryons for half a century.

[Daedalus]

It's hard to fault the Reg hacks, because the BNL release doesn't do a very good job of getting the pertinent facts up front. The known strange baryons do get a mention, but the release doesn't make the point that higher mass (i.e. higher energy) versions can exist as well as the ground states, just as an atom can be excited to higher states. I don't like the "freezing point" analogy at all. Better they should have said that the "temperature" at which ordinary hadrons melt into quark-gluon plasma is lower that it otherwise would be.

[Graham Marsden]

Sounds fascinating...

... even though I didn't understand a word of it! :-)

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Sounds fascinating...

Neither did I, but I'm not quite sure.

[Chimp]

Re: Sounds fascinating...

I don't think it's real. There isn't a single use of the word 'quantum'.

[mr.K]

Re: Sounds fascinating...

Connecting this subject to quantum mechanics would be a leap.

Alright, alright, I am going.

[Martin Budden]

Re: Sounds fascinating...

I don't think it's real. There isn't a single use of the word 'quantum'.

Para 7 starts off with "Quantum chronodynamics..."

[Denarius]

baryon bothering boffins busy

interesting anyway.

[Chris G]

Question

Will this knowledge contribute to making a better cup of tea? Or a better pint for that matter.

[Vladimir Plouzhnikov]

Re: Question

No, but it may eventually help with more mundane things like lazors on sharks, lightsabers, warp drives, maybe even flying cars one day...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Question

Oh, so relatively useless.

[Wzrd1]

Re: Question

"...maybe even flying cars one day..."

Who in the hell would want that?!

They can't bloody drive on the ground, I'd hate to see the mess that the average idiot driver would do in the air.

And honestly, I put a roof on the house 10 years ago, I'm not in a hurry to replace it, along with the upper story of my home due to an idiot driver crashing above.

[Scott Broukell]

Further Question

Are such particles, henceforth, be known as 'Shit Pea Baryons' ? (we need answers)