First bosons in the new OPE

1996/10/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Fisika

In the European centre CERN, W bosons were first detected in 1983. Bosons are particles that are exchanged in weak interaction. In July 1996, however, in the Large Electron Positron collider (LEP2), W (W+ and W-) boson pairs were created almost industrially. For this, the former LEP fractions accelerator has seen its power increased and although the energy of the collision was 90 GeV (gigaelectronics) last year, it is now 161 GeV.

During the first months the W bosons will be analyzed. The mass will be measured, allowing to check the expected calculations and the standard theory. However, the LEP2 will primarily explore the field of supersymmetry. This new theory aims to unify the four types of forces of the Universe, although until now it has not been possible to verify if there is not an accelerator of fractions of sufficient power.

At the energy level of 161 geV the first superparticles should begin to appear and physicists want to detect the lightest of them, called the charino. So far there is hope to detect this particle that has only been generated in the mind of theoretical physicists.