Pentaquarks

Pentaquarks 36

Posted by timothy on Monday June 30, 2003 @07:34PM from the cheesy-bits dept.

jafuser writes "Physicists are quite confident that they have discovered a new baryonic state called a 'pentaquark' which is a particle composed of *five* quarks (4 quarks and one anti-quark to be precise). Up until now, quarks were only observed to come together in groups of two (mesons) or three (baryons). If you still haven't gotten comfortable with knowing your leptons from your hadrons, I suggest clicking through an excellent site at Particle Adventure."

Pentaquarks

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- Re:Easy mistake (Score:1)
  
  by DustMagnet ( 453493 ) writes:
  
  Most people find it hard to get excited that about states of matter that only exist for very short periods of time.
  - Re:Easy mistake (Score:1)
    
    by Old Wolf ( 56093 ) writes:
    
    That's what Viagra is for
- Re:Easy mistake (Score:3, Funny)
  
  by kurosawdust ( 654754 ) writes:
  
  that's actually a valid component of matter - for example, in a wonderful bit of irony the dean of my college's physics department was composed mostly of hardons. The students bookbags generally contained ironons, too.
  and if you read enough Frijtof Capra, youll find out about the zen-tastic yin and yang of the particle known as the "waxon", and its complement - the anti-waxon.
  - Re:Easy mistake (Score:3, Funny)
    
    by Red Rocket ( 473003 ) writes:
    
    You'll also find that, if you study the entire faculty and staff, you'll discover that they are actually made of individual particles called "persons".
    - Re: Easy mistake (Score:1, Funny)
      
      by Anonymous Coward writes:
      
      The restaurant down the street serves an interesting soup composed of wontons.
  - Re:Easy mistake (Score:1)
    
    by Thuktun ( 221615 ) writes:
    
    and if you read enough Frijtof Capra, youll find out about the zen-tastic yin and yang of the particle known as the "waxon", and its complement - the anti-waxon.
    
    ...also colloquially known as a "waxoff".
Five Quarks? (Score:4, Funny)

by Atario ( 673917 ) writes: on Monday June 30, 2003 @07:57PM (#6335342) Homepage

I suppose that's what happens when the last epsiode of Star Trek: The Next Generation collides with Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

- Re:Five Quarks? (Score:4, Funny)
  
  by Suidae ( 162977 ) writes: on Tuesday July 01, 2003 @09:33AM (#6338622)
  
  Does the Anti-Quark have a goatee? I'd like to see that.
  
Ohh, I love it... (Score:5, Funny)

by joto ( 134244 ) writes: on Monday June 30, 2003 @08:44PM (#6335661)

They have an explanation for the general public, the general scientist, and the physicist. Obviously, they care about accurate science reporting.

- - Re:Ohh, I love it... (Score:1, Insightful)
    
    by Anonymous Coward writes:
    
    No because it goes on to explain that it is actually 4 quarks and 1 anti quark hence the use of quote.
They're all just a bunch of reverse engineers! (Score:4, Funny)

by Bob Bitchen ( 147646 ) writes: on Monday June 30, 2003 @09:58PM (#6336091) Homepage

It's interesting to note that this form of reverse engineering is revered and those practicing are held in high esteem (usually) but that more meso-scale reverse engineering is considered lowly and usually is illegal. Ponder that....

- Re:They're all just a bunch of reverse engineers! (Score:1)
  
  by tenorX ( 685392 ) writes:
  
  illegal? what do you mean by meso-scale?
- Re:They're all just a bunch of reverse engineers! (Score:2)
  
  by zangdesign ( 462534 ) writes:
  
  Ponder it? I don't even know what the hell you just said! Spoke ... typed ... AAARRRGGGHHH!
  
  My brain just exploded.
- Re:They're all just a bunch of reverse engineers! (Score:3, Funny)
  
  by KDan ( 90353 ) writes:
  
  Well I guess God must have forgotten to file for patents on the nature of the universe...
  
  Daniel
Color? (Score:4, Interesting)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Monday June 30, 2003 @10:22PM (#6336197)

I wonder what the color makeup of the pentaquark is. As I undestand it, for mesons it's red/anti-red, blue/anti-blue, or green/anti-green. For baryons it's red/blue/green or anti-red/anti-blue/anti-green. What do you do for five?

- Re:Color? (Score:3, Informative)
  
  by Christopher Thomas ( 11717 ) writes:
  
  I wonder what the color makeup of the pentaquark is. As I undestand it, for mesons it's red/anti-red, blue/anti-blue, or green/anti-green. For baryons it's red/blue/green or anti-red/anti-blue/anti-green. What do you do for five?
  
  RGB plus R!R or G!G or B!B.
  
  Think of this as a merged baryon and meson.
  - Re:Color? (Score:2)
    
    by Rares Marian ( 83629 ) writes:
    
    Think of this as a merged baryon and meson.
    
    No. They specifically said that the merged version would have different properties.
    - Re:Color? (Score:5, Informative)
      
      by Christopher Thomas ( 11717 ) writes: on Tuesday July 01, 2003 @01:18AM (#6337079)
      
      Think of this as a merged baryon and meson.
      
      No. They specifically said that the merged version would have different properties.
      
      "Merged" != "Bound".
      
      A bound pair would not be a distinct particle (it would be two co-orbiting, which would have different particles). A pentaquark can be thought of has a merger of the two particles, containing the constituents of both but having its own energy structure.
      
      List of the constituents is the same. Hence, my example.
      
      - Re:Color? (Score:1)
        
        by Christopher Thomas ( 11717 ) writes:
        
        (it would be two co-orbiting, which would have different particles) ...different properties. That's what I get for slashdotting at silly-o'clock in the morning.
        
        Re:Color? (Score:2)
        
        by Rares Marian ( 83629 ) writes:
        
        I read it the way you meant it. That's what I get for reading at silly-o'clock in the morning.
      - Re:Color? (Score:2)
        
        by Christopher Thomas ( 11717 ) writes:
        
        So perhaps we can also get 7 and 9 quark particles.
        
        In principle, we can get any number we please. The question is whether a particle with, say, 7 quarks would have lower energy than three separate particles (one baryon and two mesons). Depending on its internal energy structure, it would either be unstable, extremely unstable, or not bound as a particle at all (we know it's not stable because a) we don't see these around normally, and b) anything built from quarks and antiquarks decays [quickly if the Q a
        
        Re:Color? (Score:2)
        
        by Mt._Honkey ( 514673 ) writes:
        
        Here's a recent possibility for a tetraquark [aip.org].
      - Re:Color? (Score:2)
        
        by barawn ( 25691 ) writes:
        
        With quarks it's difficult to say that there would be a difference between "merged" and "bound" - the strong force is very weird (it's confining, for one: it gets stronger the farther away the particle gets, and weaker the closer in the particles are) and so it's really quite difficult to distinctly say "yes, this is a distinct 5-quark 'merged' particle" or "no, this is a meson-baryon molecule where the quark-antiquark orbit the other three color-singlet quarks".
        
        After all, no matter what, it's NOT a distin
'general public' (Score:2, Informative)

by Anonymous Coward writes:

here is the version of the press release they have for the general public:
Is it just me, or does the assumed sophistication of the target audience make anybody else really scared?

The pentaquark -- A description for the general public If you're reading this web page, then you likely know that atoms are the basic building blocks of matter, and that atoms are made up of electrons swarming around a tiny nucleus. More than 99.9% of the mass of everyday objects is contained within the nucleus of the atoms. No
Primes? (Score:1)

by Gamasta ( 557555 ) writes:

Well let's see... 2,3,5... maybe the next one will be 7 quarks. Just a crappy guess.
So what's a ... (Score:1, Offtopic)

by Muad'Dave ( 255648 ) writes:

dectector? Look at the image on the first linked page.
Pentaquark (Score:2)

by Muhammar ( 659468 ) writes:

I thought this was the term for a heat sink/overclock bummer

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Pentaquarks 36

Pentaquarks More Login

Re:Easy mistake (Score:1)

Re:Easy mistake (Score:1)

Re:Easy mistake (Score:3, Funny)

Re:Easy mistake (Score:3, Funny)

Re: Easy mistake (Score:1, Funny)

Re:Easy mistake (Score:1)

Five Quarks? (Score:4, Funny)

Re:Five Quarks? (Score:4, Funny)

Ohh, I love it... (Score:5, Funny)

Re:Ohh, I love it... (Score:1, Insightful)

They're all just a bunch of reverse engineers! (Score:4, Funny)

Re:They're all just a bunch of reverse engineers! (Score:1)

Re:They're all just a bunch of reverse engineers! (Score:2)

Re:They're all just a bunch of reverse engineers! (Score:3, Funny)

Color? (Score:4, Interesting)

Re:Color? (Score:3, Informative)

Re:Color? (Score:2)

Re:Color? (Score:5, Informative)

Re:Color? (Score:1)

Re:Color? (Score:2)

Re:Color? (Score:2)

Re:Color? (Score:2)

Re:Color? (Score:2)

'general public' (Score:2, Informative)

Primes? (Score:1)

So what's a ... (Score:1, Offtopic)

Pentaquark (Score:2)

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