Physicists Discover Never-Before Seen Particle Sitting On a Tabletop

Researchers have discovered a new particle that is a magnetic relative of the Higgs boson. Whereas the discovery of the Higgs boson required the tremendous particle-accelerating power of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), this never-before-seen particle -- dubbed the axial Higgs boson -- was found using an experiment that would fit on a small kitchen countertop. Live Science reports: As well as being a first in its own right, this magnetic cousin of the Higgs boson -- the particle responsible for granting other particles their mass -- could be a candidate for dark matter, which accounts for 85%t of the total mass of the universe but only reveals itself through gravity. The axial Higgs boson differs from the Higgs boson, which was first detected by the ATLAS and CMS detectors at the LHC a decade ago in 2012, because it has a magnetic moment, a magnetic strength or orientation that creates a magnetic field. As such, it requires a more complex theory to describe it than its non-magnetic mass-granting cousin.

'When my student showed me the data I thought she must be wrong,' Kenneth Burch, a professor of physics at Boston College and lead researcher of the team that made the discovery, told Live Science. 'It's not every day you find a new particle sitting on your tabletop.' 'We found the axial Higgs boson using a tabletop optics experiment which sits on a table measuring about 1 x 1 meters by focusing on a material with a unique combination of properties,' Burch continued. 'Specifically we used rare-earth Tritelluride (RTe3) [a quantum material with a highly 2D crystal structure]. The electrons in RTe3 self-organize into a wave where the density of the charge is periodically enhanced or reduced.' The size of these charge density waves, which emerge above room temperature, can be modulated over time, producing the axial Higgs mode.

In the new study, the team created the axial Higgs mode by sending laser light of one color into the RTe3 crystal. The light scattered and changed to a color of lower frequency in a process known as Raman scattering, and the energy lost during the color change created the axial Higgs mode. The team then rotated the crystal and found that the axial Higgs mode also controls the angular momentum of the electrons, or the rate at which they move in a circle, in the material meaning this mode must also be magnetic. 'Originally we were simply investigating the light scattering properties of this material. When carefully examining the symmetry of the response -- how it differed as we rotated the sample -- we discovered anomalous changes that were the initial hints of something new,' Burch explained. 'As such, it is the first such magnetic Higgs to be discovered and indicates the collective behavior of the electrons in RTe3 is unlike any state previously seen in nature.' The report notes that this is also the first time scientists have observed a state with multiple broken symmetries.

'Symmetry breaking occurs when a symmetric system that appears the same in all directions becomes asymmetric,' reports Live Science. 'Oregon University suggests thinking of this as being like a spinning coin that has two possible states. The coin eventually falls onto its head or tail face thus releasing energy and becoming asymmetrical.'

The findings have been published in the journal Nature.

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