{"id":486713,"date":"2026-02-24T01:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T01:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/486713\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T01:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T01:42:10","slug":"this-physicist-says-the-universes-deepest-secrets-can-be-found-now-without-waiting-for-a-2070-collider","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/486713\/","title":{"rendered":"This physicist Says the Universe\u2019s Deepest Secrets Can Be Found Now, Without Waiting for a 2070 Collider"},"content":{"rendered":"

A prominent particle physicist believes the next layer of reality may already be within reach. Instead of waiting decades for a more powerful collider, he argues that ultra-rare particle decays could expose what lies in the so-called \u201czeptouniverse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since confirming the Higgs boson in 2012, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has remained the world\u2019s most advanced machine for probing the subatomic world. Many physicists expected that discovery to trigger a cascade of new particles capable of explaining dark matter or the imbalance between matter and antimatter. That wave of revelations never truly arrived.<\/p>\n

Now, particle physicist Harry Cliff of the LHCb experiment points to a possible reason: the physics researchers are searching for may exist at scales the LHC cannot directly probe.<\/p>\n

A Frontier Smaller Than the Lhc Can See<\/p>\n

The LHC can thoroughly explore distances down to the attometer scale, one quintillionth of a meter. In practical terms, it can directly analyze particles down to about 50 zeptometers. The \u201czeptouniverse,\u201d by contrast, refers to phenomena unfolding at roughly 10\u207b\u00b2\u00b9 meters.<\/p>\n

According to Popular Mechanics<\/a>, theoretical physicist Andrzej Buras of the Technical University of Munich argues that new particles could simply lie beyond the LHC\u2019s detection limits. If so, direct discovery at current energies may not be possible.<\/p>\n

\"SixSix ultra-rare decays stand out for their potential to reveal ne physics this decade \u2013 CERN Courier <\/p>\n

CERN completed a feasibility study in 2025 for the proposed Future Circular Collider (FCC), which would push particle collisions to far higher energies. Yet the FCC is not expected to conduct high-energy physics experiments until 2070. That timeline has prompted Buras to ask whether physicists can reach the zeptouniverse sooner, without building a new collider.<\/p>\n

In a 2020 article for Physik Journal<\/a>, Buras framed the question plainly: \u201cCan we reach the Zeptouniverse, i.e., a resolution as high as 10\u201321m or energies as large as 200 TeV, by means of quark flavour physics and lepton flavour violating processes in this decade well before this will be possible by means of any collider built in this century?\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201cMagnificent Seven\u201d and Their Rare Signals<\/p>\n

Rather than relying on higher collision energies, Buras proposes studying extremely rare particle decays that might carry indirect traces of new physics. In a 2024 paper uploaded to the preprint server arXiv<\/a>, he identified seven such processes, referring to them as the \u201cmagnificent seven,\u201d according to New Scientist<\/a>.<\/p>\n

All seven involve rare decays of particles containing strange and bottom quarks. Harry Cliff describes them as \u201cechoes from the zeptouniverse\u201d, subtle signals that could reveal physics beyond the Standard Model.<\/p>\n

\"BelleBelle II experiment at KEK \u2013 \u00a9 CERN Courier <\/p>\n

One example begins with a B meson, a composite particle made of different quarks. In 2023, Japan\u2019s Belle II experiment <\/a>observed a decay in which a B meson transformed into a kaon, or K meson, along with two neutrinos. The experiment was not configured to directly detect neutrinos, limiting the available information about them.<\/p>\n

Another ultra-rare event was recorded in September 2024 by CERN\u2019s NA62 experiment. It observed a positively charged kaon decaying into a pion and a matter\u2013antimatter pair. Fewer than one in 10 billion kaons is expected to decay in this way. Because this process is sensitive to deviations from the Standard Model, it has become one of the prime targets in the search for new physics. The KOTO experiment in Japan is currently seeking a second confirmation of this kaon decay.<\/p>\n

Why Indirect Searches Matter Now<\/p>\n

The scientific motivation behind these efforts is clear. In the trade magazine CERN Courier, Buras wrote that the search<\/a> for new particles and forces is driven by the need to explain dark matter<\/a>, the enormous range of particle masses, from the tiny neutrino to the massive top quark, and the asymmetry between matter and antimatter that makes our existence possible.<\/p>\n

He also noted that direct searches at the LHC have not yet provided clues about what those new particles or forces might be. As a result, indirect searches are gaining importance.<\/p>\n

For now, these rare decays are the only available windows into the zeptouniverse. Until a next-generation collider begins operating, physicists are left examining faint, infrequent signals, hoping that within them lies the next major breakthrough in our understanding of the universe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A prominent particle physicist believes the next layer of reality may already be within reach. Instead of waiting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[199,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-486713","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-physics","8":"tag-physics","9":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}