The physics lab that's home to the world's largest atom smasher have announced the observation and discovery of three new "exotic particles" never seen before that could provide clues about the force that binds subatomic particles together, as scientists, with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), work to unlock the building blocks of the universe, the European nuclear research center CERN revealed.
The 27-kilometer (16.8-mile) LHC at CERN is the machine that found the Higgs boson particle, which along with its linked energy field is thought to be vital to the formation of the universe after the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago.
Now, scientists at CERN say they have observed a new kind of "pentaquark" and the first-ever pair of "tetraquarks," adding three members to the list of new hadrons found at the LHC.
They will help physicists better understand how quarks bind together into composite particles.
Most exotic hadrons, which are subatomic particles, are made up of two or three elemental particles known as quarks. The strong force is one of four forces known in the universe, along with the "weak force" – which applies to the decay of particles – as well as the electromagnetic force and gravity.
More rarely, however, they can also combine into four-quark and five-quark particles, or tetraquarks and pentaquarks.
"The more analyses we perform, the more kinds of exotic hadrons we find," physicist Niels Tuning said in a statement.
"We're witnessing a period of discovery similar to the 1950s, when a 'particle zoo' of hadrons started being discovered and ultimately led to the quark model of conventional hadrons in the 1960s. We're creating 'particle zoo 2.0.'"
The so-called "Run 3" of collisions, ending a three-year pause for maintenance and other checks, is operating at an unprecedented energy of 13.6 trillion electronvolts, which will offer the prospect of new discoveries in particle physics.
CERN scientists hailed a smooth start to what is expected to be nearly four years of operation in "Run 3" – the third time the LHC has carried out collisions since its debut in 2008.
On Monday, CERN celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the confirmation of the Higgs boson, the subatomic particle that has a central place in the so-called Standard Model that explains the basics of particle physics.