Two scientific papers were submitted for publication last Tuesday on a hypothesis verified by Syracuse University physics professor Sheldon Stone, who used data from the other side of the globe to make the discovery.

In early December, a team led by Stone experimentally verified a hypothesis about a subatomic particle using data from the recently constructed Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland. Stone and Liming Zhang, a research associate in high-energy physics, jointly formulated the hypothesis.

The two scientific papers will be published in Modern Physics Letters B, a European journal in the field of high-energy particle physics. The submission for publication has brought recognition to the Experimental High Energy Physics Group at SU. Stone is the head of the program.

The recent discovery deals with a type of subatomic particle known as a meson, which is a combination of a quark and an antiquark. Quarks, which are some of the fundamental building blocks of matter, are divided into subcategories known as flavors, and combinations of these flavors yield what are known as flavorful mesons.

The discovery details the behavior of a flavorful meson known as the BS meson. The behavior of this meson is expected to shed light on why the universe is full of matter.

Stone has a long history with B mesons. He theorized the existence of B mesons in the late 1970s, confirmed their existence in a 1983 experiment at Cornell and theorized the recently confirmed behavior in a paper from 2009 co-authored with Zhang, he said.

He said the confirmed behavior will allow physicists to indirectly study previously inaccessible properties of the cosmos.

‘It’s a tool,’ said Stone, referring to the BS meson behavior. ‘We now have another screwdriver that we didn’t have before.’

Bilas Pal, a graduate student and member of the Experimental High Energy Physics Group at SU, had a hand in the recent discoveries and works with Stone.

‘I’m really excited,’ Pal said. ‘For the Syracuse physics community, this is a great achievement.’

But Pal said few students are interested in the discoveries of high-energy physics.

‘This is an abstract thing, and high-energy physics is not for some particular company or something like that,’ Pal said. ‘If someone invents something like a computer or something like that, students would know easily.’

Even though recent attention has been drawn to the Experimental High Energy Physics Group, Stone said there will be more papers on discoveries within the field of high-energy physics.

‘This will change quickly,’ Stone said. ‘By next summer, instead of having the first three papers, there will be a lot of other papers. Hopefully there will be 20 or 30 more.’

Stone said he will not mind relinquishing the limelight in the interest of science.

Said Stone: ‘It will be good for all of us when more results start coming out.’

jwklau@syr.edu

Published on February 8, 2011 at 12:00 pm