New evidence has been found by a team of scientists coming from the Penn State University which suggests that some of those particles picked up in Antarctica do not fit the Standard Model. So, they have come up with a paper which is capable of outlining their arguments which they have posted on the arXiv preprint server.
The research which was previously performed showed that when low energy particles encountered the Earth’s atmosphere, they tend to pass through. On the other hand, the particles with higher energy will certainly run into something else, which would prevent them from passing through safe and unscathed.
This would result in some form of an avalanche of collisions, leading to a particle shower which will eventually find its way to the other side of the planet. However, think about a particle that has high energy and it would still find its way through without leading to a particle shower. This would make it one that is not described by the Standard Model, and these researchers are saying exactly that.
There were two particularly odd events recently which had two particles detected by a sensor attached to the balloon that hovers over Antarctica at high altitudes, as part of the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna project. Back in 2006 was when scientists picked up on the first particle and the second one occurred 8 years later, in 2014.
They both indicated that, somehow, a high-energy particle made its way somehow through the Earth without colliding in something. New evidence, in the form of sensor data gathered from the IceCube experiment. This project had sensors buried in the ice and they continually detected particle events. The data showed that three events occurred and because there are now two independent sources, scientists believe it is time to investigate further if we are talking about a particle outside the Standard Model.
Agnes is a technical writer, being in touch with reports to come up with the latest tech leaks.
