New Theory of Unparticle Physics

Howard Georgi, a physicist at Harvard University, recently published a theory of what he calls "unparticle physics" in Physical Review Letters. The "unparticle stuff" suggested by the study would be much different than anything detectable via the current particle physics model. Gerogi does, however, give a "quantitative scenario of the production of unparticle stuff, and predicts how it could be experimentally detected in the upcoming Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the most powerful particle accelerator that will open in early 2008."

The key to the unparticle theory is the existence of an undiscovered sector of the current physics model which is "scale-invariant," i.e., one in which objects don't change when their dimensional qualities are multiplied by a rescaling parameter. The idea does not make sense in particle theory because most particles have a definite nonzero mass. (This excludes particles which mediate infinite range forces and can, therefore, have zero mass - such as photons and gravitons.)

Georgi's model would allow the detection of unparticle stuff (if it exists) via a weak interaction between this scale-invariant sector and the rest of the standard model. "The unparticle theory is a high-energy theory that contains both standard model fields and 'Banks-Zaks' fields (which has scale-invariance at an infrared point). The two fields can interact through the interactions of ordinary particles under high enough machine energy or a low enough mass scale."

Star This to Save in Your Profile