{"id":61512,"date":"2024-05-29T15:36:40","date_gmt":"2024-05-29T15:36:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/29\/scientists-propose-a-hunt-for-never-before-seen-tauonium-atoms\/"},"modified":"2024-05-29T15:36:40","modified_gmt":"2024-05-29T15:36:40","slug":"scientists-propose-a-hunt-for-never-before-seen-tauonium-atoms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/29\/scientists-propose-a-hunt-for-never-before-seen-tauonium-atoms\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists propose a hunt for never-before-seen \u2018tauonium\u2019 atoms\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.sciencenews.org\/e_conover?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Scientists propose a hunt for never-before-seen \u2018tauonium\u2019 atoms\u00a0\" title=\"Scientists propose a hunt for never-before-seen \u2018tauonium\u2019 atoms\u00a0\" \/><\/div> \r\n<br><div>\n\t\t\t<div class=\"rich-text rich-text--with-sidebar single__rich-text___RmCDp\" data-component=\"video-embed\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\n\n\n<p>Atoms are normally made of a nucleus and electrons. But scientists are proposing a hunt for a new variety of atom without either. Tauonium (sometimes called \u201cditauonium\u201d or \u201ctrue tauonium\u201d) would consist of a negatively charged tau lepton, and its positively charged antimatter counterpart, an antitau.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tau leptons are relatives of electrons. Each tau has about 3,500 times an electron\u2019s mass, making it heavier than a proton. In the 1950s, scientists discovered an atom called positronium, consisting of an electron and its positively charged antiparticle, a positron. Tauonium, if discovered, would be a burlier atom.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Scientists propose searching for tauonium by smashing electrons and positrons together at a future particle collider designed to produce tau leptons, which has been proposed in both China and Russia. Such facilities\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/abs\/pii\/S2095927324002214\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">could find tauonium within a year<\/a>\u00a0of starting up, physicist Jing-Hang Fu of Beihang University in Beijing and colleagues report April 4 in\u00a0<em>Science Bulletin<\/em>.\u00a0The researchers propose looking at the ratio of the probability of two different types of particle interactions in the collisions, to reduce experimental uncertainty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With the complexity of the atomic nucleus out of the picture, studies of tauonium could scrutinize the physics theory that describes electrically charged particles, quantum electrodynamics. Studies of positronium\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/article\/positronium-energy-levels-exotic-atom-physics\">have already been used to test the theory<\/a>\u00a0(<em>SN: 8\/24\/20<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n\t\t\t<\/div> <!-- \/.rich-text -->\n\t\t\t\n<footer class=\"article-footer__wrapper___eChRS article-footer__with-sidebar___9oDuK\">\n\t\t\t<p class=\"article-footer__feedback___sNXjz\">Questions or comments on this article? E-mail us at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/article\/mailto:feedback@sciencenews.org\">feedback@sciencenews.org<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/permission-republish\">Reprints FAQ<\/a><\/p>\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\t\n<div class=\"author-bio__wrapper___ODe-4\">\n\t\t\t<figure class=\"author-bio__figure___e3jd0\">\n\t\t\t<a class=\"author-bio__thumbnail___TixlC\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/author\/emily-conover\" aria-hidden=\"true\" tabindex=\"-1\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\n\t<div class=\"author-bio__content___F9GU3\">\n\t\t\n\n\t\t<div class=\"author-bio__bio___jkxvt\">\n\t\t\t<p>Physics writer Emily Conover has a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Chicago. She is a two-time winner of the D.C. Science Writers\u2019 Association Newsbrief award.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\t<aside class=\"sn-conversion rich-text rich-text--with-sidebar\">\n<style><![CDATA[\n.donate-box {\n  border-top: 7px solid red !important;\n  border: 1px solid #ffcccb;\n  margin-top: 50px;\n  background-color: #fdfbf2;\n  padding: 20px;\n}\n.from-nature-index__heading___AhgOe {\n  display: none;\n}\n]]><\/style>\n\n\n\n<style><![CDATA[.from-nature-index__heading___AhgOe {\n    display: none;\n}]]><\/style><div id=\"donateConversion\" class=\"wp-block-group donate-box\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\" style=\"font-size:1.1em\">\nWe are at a critical time and <strong><mark>supporting science journalism \nis more important than ever<\/mark><\/strong>. <em>Science News<\/em> and our \nparent organization, the Society for Science, need your help to strengthen \nscientific literacy and ensure that important societal decisions are made \nwith science in mind.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\" style=\"font-size:1.1em\">\nPlease \n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/subscribe1-print-digital?key=9MENDCON&amp;utm_source=end-of-article&amp;utm_medium=site&amp;utm_campaign=non-sub-control\">\nsubscribe to <em>Science News<\/em> and <strong>add $16<\/strong><\/a> to expand \nscience literacy and understanding.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n<\/aside><\/footer>\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n<br>\r\n<br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/article\/tauonium-atoms-particles\">Source link <\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Atoms are normally made of a nucleus and electrons. But scientists are proposing a hunt for a new variety of atom without either. Tauonium (sometimes called \u201cditauonium\u201d or \u201ctrue tauonium\u201d) would consist of a negatively charged tau lepton, and its positively charged antimatter counterpart, an antitau. Tau leptons are relatives of electrons. Each tau has [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61513,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/e_conover","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[606],"tags":[25879,3319,37859,5204,601,59424],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61512"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61512"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61514,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61512\/revisions\/61514"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}