Randy Lewis
An international team of researchers announced Nov. 19 the discovery of two new particles in the baryon family, which makes them cousins of the familiar proton and neutron.聽 The at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, used CERN鈥檚 to make these discoveries.
The masses of these particles, named Xi_b'- and Xi_b* - had been predicted in a paper published in 2009 by 91亚色 physics Professor Randy Lewis and Richard Woloshyn, scientist at the in Vancouver, using a supercomputer approach called lattice QCD.
鈥淭he prediction of the existence and masses of these particles is a tour de force of theoretical and computational physics. It is a fantastic accomplishment of Randy鈥檚, who is working at the very edge of theoretical physics as well as pushing supercomputer capabilities to the limit,鈥 said Roman Koniuk, chair of the Department of Physics & Astronomy at 91亚色.
鈥淭his uses the most fundamental theory of quarks and gluons to explain the quantum physics inside these tiny new Xi particles,鈥 said Lewis.
Lewis is continuing his use of lattice QCD to study other combinations of quarks and gluons that can also be pursued by experimental laboratories like CERN.
To learn more, read the news stories on the discovery published by the聽, 聽and the .