Subatomic Rebel Without A Cause

No sooner do we report last month’s quark news than a new quark discovery is announced. Deep in the bowels of BaBar (no, not that one) has appeared something even weirder than the name they gave it – Ds(2317). A particle formed by a charmed quark mixing with a strange antiquark, Ds(2317) is lighter than expected and breaks up into other particles in an unexpected way. In the rigidly controlled particle physics world of The Standard Model, that makes the new particle a rebel without a cause (no, not that one). “Congratulations to BaBar,” said Jonathan Dorfan, director of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center where the particle was discovered. “The existence of the particle is not a surprise, but its mass is lower than expected. This result will send theorists back to their drawing boards.”