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An artist\u2019s illustration of the particle<\/p>\nA entirely new subatomic particle has been discovered by a team including British researchers at Cern, the nuclear research laboratory, that could help scientists understand the force that binds all atoms together.<\/p>\n
The particle is a heavier version of a proton, the positively charged particle found in varying numbers at the heart of atoms.<\/p>\n
It was found using the newly upgraded Large Hadron Collider (LHC) as part of its latest \u201cbeauty\u201d experiment, known as LHCb. Scientists spotted the particle amid a spray of debris created by colliding particles at the facility near Geneva, Switzerland.<\/p>\n
The particle has been called Xi-cc-plus, written in scientific notation as \u039ecc\u207a, and is four times heavier than a normal proton. Its extra mass comes from the fact that it is made from heavier building blocks, known as quarks.<\/p>\n
An artist\u2019s illustration of the particle<\/p>\n
Quarks are thought to be the fundamental, indivisible ingredients that make up all protons and neutrons, which themselves make up the nuclei of atoms.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There are six types, or flavours of quark, called up, down, charm, strange, top and bottom. The \u201ctop\u201d and \u201cbottom\u201d quarks are sometimes known as the \u201ctruth\u201d and \u201cbeauty\u201d quarks, with the latter lending its name to the \u201cbeauty\u201d experiment, which is specifically investigating particles made up of beauty and charm quarks.<\/p>\n
A regular proton contains two up quarks and one down. However, the Xi-cc-plus proton contains two \u201ccharm\u201d quarks instead of the up quarks, which are heavier. Because of this, it has been dubbed a \u201cdoubly charmed baryon\u201d. A baryon is a subatomic particle, including protons and neutrons, that is made of three quarks.<\/p>\n
The new particle decayed within a millionth of a second of coming into existence inside the collider. Scientists were able to deduce its existence when they spotted three lighter particles created as by-products when the Xi-cc-plus proton decayed.<\/p>\n
It is the first new particle detected by the upgraded LHC, whose first iteration astonished the scientific world with the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012.<\/p>\n
Chris Parkes, head of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Manchester, said: \u201cRutherford\u2019s gold\u2011foil experiment in a Manchester basement transformed our understanding of matter, and today\u2019s discovery builds on that legacy using state\u2011of\u2011the\u2011art technology at Cern.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Prof](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/96af6c8d-890d-43e4-bb64-fe9c6a0a29af.png\")
Chris Parkes at the Large Hadron Collider<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth milestones demonstrate just how far curiosity-driven research can take us. This discovery showcases the extraordinary capability of the upgraded LHCb detector and the strength of UK and Manchester contributions to the experiment.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are four fundamental forces in physics.\u00a0Gravity is by far the weakest, but it can still pull vast objects like planets, stars and galaxies together over enormous distances.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The electromagnetic force is responsible for electricity and magnetism, creating forces of attraction or repulsion between charged objects.<\/p>\n
The weak nuclear force governs the interactions between subatomic particles and can change one type of quark into another.<\/p>\n
The fourth is the strong nuclear force. This holds together the building blocks of atoms. It binds the protons and neutrons together within an atom\u2019s nucleus and, at an even smaller scale, binds together the quarks that lie inside the protons and neutrons.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It is about 100 times stronger than electromagnetism and \u201c100 trillion trillion trillion times\u201d stronger than gravity, according to Nasa, but only has an influence over tiny distances: around 100 million times smaller than the width of a human hair.<\/p>\n
Parkes said learning about new subatomic particles like Xi-cc-plus can teach us more about this strong force. The collisions between protons in the LHC mimic those seen at the very start of the universe. Discovering new particles provides a \u201cnew playground\u201d for scientists to refine their theories, he added.<\/p>\n
Scientists currently struggle to predict the mass of particles made up of different configurations of quarks. \u201cBy finding particles like this, we can test our understanding,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n