The CERN particle discovered a hitherto never detected – Daily News – Lisbon

The largest particle accelerator in the world sensed a category of particles, pentaquarks, whose existence had been predicted for more than 50 years, but never observed, today announced the CERN / CERN.

The pentaquarks are formed by five quarks, the fundamental constituents of protons and the neutrons – which along with electrons make up the matter we know. And despite over half a century of experimental investigations, had never before been detected in a training of this kind, says in a statement CERN, of which Portugal is one of the member countries.

The study of their properties may, CERN said, allow a better understanding of how they form atomic nuclei of matter.

In 1964, the American physicist Murray Gell-Mann has revolutionized the understanding of matter, admitting the existence of particles known as . quarks, which earned him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1969

Gell-Mann proposed the distinction between two categories of particles: the baryons, which include protons and neutrons, and mesons.