Particle discovery widens frontiers of physics

Cern, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, has found a previously unobserved particle of matter that it says will help researchers learn more about fundamental physical forces.

The particle, officially designated ≡CC++, is one of a family of subatomic particles called baryons. Baryons are made up of three fundamental particles that cannot be further broken down, called quarks, and ≡CC++ is the first one ever observed that contains two heavy quarks.

Existing physical theories predicted the existence of the particle, Cern said in its announcement yesterday. However, physicists have been trying to observe it without success for many years. The successful observation was made using Cern’s Large Hadron Collider particle accelerator.