A charmed' new particle is discovered at world's largest atom smasher

"The new particle, discovered at the world's largest atom smasher, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva, Switzerland, contains two charm quarks and a down quark. Like protons and neutrons, its total of three quarks classifies it in particle physics as a baryon, which is a type of hadron—or a particle made of quarks."

"The new particle, which physicists are calling a doubly charmed baryon, essentially replaces the two up quarks in a proton with charm quarks, giving it about four times the mass of the more common and stable proton. The LHC accelerates protons to more than 99 percent the speed of light and then slams them together."

"The new particle was discovered by the LHCb experiment, one of nine detectors stationed around the LHC's 17-mile-long ring. It's the first new particle seen at the experiment since scientists upgraded LHCb in 2023. The doubly charmed baryon is only the second baryon with two heavy quarks."

Physicists at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva discovered a new exotic particle called a doubly charmed baryon, composed of two charm quarks and one down quark. This particle is classified as a baryon, a type of hadron made of quarks. The doubly charmed baryon has approximately four times the mass of a proton and is created when protons collide at over 99 percent the speed of light. The particle rapidly decays into lighter particles after formation. The LHCb experiment, one of nine detectors around the collider's 17-mile ring, identified this discovery, marking the first new particle detected since the 2023 LHCb upgrade. This represents only the second known baryon containing two heavy quarks.

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