Scientists have discovered a duality between two types of scattering processes when protons collide in
Duality in physics
The concept of duality is found in differentfields of physics. The most famous example is wave-particle duality in quantum mechanics. Thomas Young's famous double-slit experiment showed that light behaves like a wave, and Albert Einstein received the Nobel Prize for showing that light behaves like a particle .
The strange thing is that light actually is andboth at the same time. There are simply two ways to look at it and each of them has a mathematical description. Completely different explanations of the same object.
“What we have now discovered is a similarduality,” explains Matthias Wilhelm, associate professor at the International Niels Bohr Academy. “We calculated a prediction for two scattering processes. The current calculations are less experimentally tangible than the famous double-slit experiment. However, there is a clear mathematical map between them that shows that they both contain the same information. They are somehow connected.”
New experiment
Interacting at the Large Hadron Collidermany protons - among them there are many subatomic particles, gluons and quarks. When they collide, two gluons from different protons can interact, creating new particles such as the Higgs boson. These processes create interesting patterns in detectors.
Source: Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare
Researchers map what they look likethese patterns, and theoretical physicists describe these processes in mathematical terms. The goal is to collect enough data to make predictions that can be compared with experimental results.
In the course of this work, scientists calculatedthe process of scattering of two gluons interacting to form four gluons, as well as the process of scattering of two gluons interacting to form a gluon and a Higgs particle, in a slightly simplified version of the Standard Model. It turned out that the results of these two calculations are related. “This is a classic case of duality explained by scientists. “Somehow the answer to how likely it is for one scattering process to occur is related to how likely it is for a second to occur.”
On the left side is the scattering process involvingtwo gluons (green/yellow and blue/cyan) interacting to form a gluon (red/magenta) and a Higgs particle (white). The more complex scattering process on the right mirrors the simpler process on the left, but here are two gluons (green/yellow and blue/cyan) interacting to form four gluons (red/magenta, red/yellow), blue/magenta and green/cyan). The black color symbolizes the fact that many different elementary interactions can occur during the collision itself. Credit: Soren J. Garnet
The strangeness of this duality isThe problem is that scientists have no idea why there is a connection between two different scattering processes at all. “We mix two very different physical properties of the two predictions and see a connection. But it still remains a mystery what it is,” explain the authors of the study.
How will this help scientists?
According to the Standard Model and the generally accepted laws of physics, these two things should not be related.
- The Standard Model is a subatomic model of the world that explains all particles and their interactions.
With the discovery of this amazing dualityscientists seem to have to continue the study. Physics has once again surprised scientists and they hope the discovery will lead to the discovery of new particles at the LHC.
Thus, after the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012year, no new sensational particles were discovered. To move the needle toward “finding new physics,” scientists try to make predictions, compare them with measurements, and look for possible deviations. That's where the answer might be.
The problem is that these processes requireincredible accuracy, both experimental and theoretical. But the larger the calculations, the more difficult it is to comply. This is where the discovered duality comes in handy. For example, one calculation may be simpler than another, but both of them will give the same answer. Scientists are going to continue experiments, how real their theory is.
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