W boson spotted in Antarctica
IceCube observatory spots elementary particle needle in a galactic haystack.
The IceCube Observatory in Antarctica. Credit: Erik Beiser / IceCube / NSF
On 6 December 2016, a high-energy particle hurtled from outer space and through an Antarctic ice sheet, where it slammed into an electron at nearly the speed of light. The enormously energetic collision created a completely different particle, which rapidly decayed into a cascade of others.
This event might have gone unnoticed – if a massive matrix of neutrino-detectors hadn’t been sunk into the ice, ready to capture such astrophysical phenomena.
In a paper published in Nature, high-energy astrophysicists at the IceCube Observatory in Antarctica confirm that this 2016 collision provides observational evidence for a theory put forth in 1960, solidifying our understanding of the Standard Model of particle physics.
E-Mail
IMAGE: A visualization of the Glashow event recorded by the IceCube detector. Each colored circle shows an IceCube sensor that was triggered by the event; red circles indicate sensors triggered earlier. view more
Credit: IceCube Collaboration
On December 6, 2016, a high-energy particle called an electron antineutrino hurtled to Earth from outer space at close to the speed of light carrying 6.3 petaelectronvolts (PeV) of energy. Deep inside the ice sheet at the South Pole, it smashed into an electron and produced a particle that quickly decayed into a shower of secondary particles. The interaction was captured by a massive telescope buried in the Antarctic glacier, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory.
IceCube detection of high-energy particle proves 60-year-old physics theory
The electron antineutrino that created the Glashow resonance event traveled quite a distance before reaching IceCube. This graphic shows its journey; the blue dotted line is the antineutrino’s path. IceCube Collaboration
On Dec. 8, 2016, a high-energy particle hurtled to Earth from outer space at close to the speed of light. The particle, an electron antineutrino, smashed into an electron deep inside the ice sheet at the South Pole. This collision produced a particle that quickly decayed into a shower of secondary particles, triggering the sensors of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a massive telescope buried in the Antarctic glacier.
New IceCube detection proves 60-year-old theory
On December 8, 2016, a high-energy particle called an electron antineutrino was hurtling through space at nearly the speed of light. Normally, the ghostly particle would zip right through the Earth as if it weren’t even there.
But this particle just so happened to smash into an electron deep inside the South Pole’s glacial ice. The collision created a new particle, known as the W
– boson. That boson quickly decayed, creating a shower of secondary particles.
The whole thing played out in front of the watchful detectors of a massive telescope buried in the Antarctic ice, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. This enabled IceCube to make the first ever detection of a Glashow resonance event, a phenomenon predicted 60 years ago by Nobel laureate physicist Sheldon Glashow.