{"id":831616,"date":"2026-03-17T11:03:31","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T11:03:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/831616\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T11:03:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T11:03:31","slug":"university-of-manchester-scientists-play-key-role-in-discovery-of-new-heavy-proton-particle-at-cern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/831616\/","title":{"rendered":"University of Manchester scientists play key role in discovery of new heavy-proton particle at CERN"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/research.manchester.ac.uk\/en\/persons\/chris.parkes\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Professor Parkes,<\/a> said: \u201cRutherford\u2019s gold\u2011foil experiment in a Manchester basement transformed our understanding of matter, and today\u2019s discovery builds on that legacy using state\u2011of\u2011the\u2011art technology at CERN. Both milestones demonstrate just how far curiosity driven research can take us. This discovery showcases the extraordinary capability of the upgraded LHCb detector and the strength of UK and Manchester contributions to the experiment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/research.manchester.ac.uk\/en\/persons\/stefano.decapua\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dr Stefano De Capua<\/a>, from The University of Manchester, who led the silicon detector module production, added: \u201cThe detector is a form of \u2018camera\u2019 that images the particles produced at the LHC and takes photographs 40 million times per second. It utilises a custom designed silicon chip that also has a variant for use in medical imaging applications.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The \u039ecc\u207a particle was identified through its decay into three lighter particles (\u039bc\u207a K\u207b \u03c0\u207a), recorded in proton\u2011proton collisions at the LHC in 2024, the first year of full operation of the LHCb Upgrade experiment. A clear peak of around 915 events was observed at a mass of 3619.97 MeV\/c\u00b2, consistent with expectations based on a previously discovered partner particle, the \u039ecc\u207a\u207a.<\/p>\n<p>This observation resolves a question that had remained open for more than two decades since an unconfirmed claim of the observation of this particle was made. The particle has now been discovered by LHCb at a mass incompatible with this earlier claim and a mass that is compatible with the theoretical expectations based on the partner particle.<\/p>\n<p>In the next phase of the LHC programme, The University of Manchester is playing a leading role in LHCb Upgrade 2, which is planned to take advantage of the High-Luminosity LHC accelerator.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Professor Parkes added: &#8220;This discovery highlights the exciting scientific opportunities ahead as we prepare for the next generation of upgrades. Continued UK involvement in LHCb Upgrade 2 will be key to ensuring the UK remains at the forefront of particle physics.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Details of the \u039ecc\u207a discovery are presented at the Rencontres de Moriond Electroweak conference.<\/p>\n<p>                        &#8216;;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Professor Parkes, said: \u201cRutherford\u2019s gold\u2011foil experiment in a Manchester basement transformed our understanding of matter, and today\u2019s discovery&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":831617,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,4884,13,2465,74,70,79906,65433,16,15,29191],"class_list":["post-831616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manchester","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-headlines","tag-manchester","tag-physics","tag-science","tag-science-and-engineering","tag-sciences","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-university-of-manchester"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116244186509812524","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=831616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/831617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=831616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=831616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=831616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}