Scientists have reported that an extremely rare particle physics events has been observed by them. They found the event when they were using a detector that was designed to search for dark matter. Dark matter is a mysterious material to scientists and they are yet to observe one. Specifically, the scientists recorded the radioactive decay of xenon-124 at the XENON laboratory. This substance is an isotope of xenon itself which is a noble gas that is colorless and odorless, and can only be found in tiny amounts in the atmosphere. This event has eluded scientists for decades and it is described as a “two neutrino double electron capture.” The occurrence of this even is when protons are converted into neutrons when they have absorbed two electrons from an atomic shell. Hence, what they emit are two electron neutrinos. A professor of physics describes the event as the rarest event ever recorded in human history. An isotope that was previously thought to be a stable isotope has been shown to have the abilities to decay within a long time scale.
Key Takeaways:
- Scientists have made a rare discovery in finding an extremely rare particle that in physics is associated with the dark hole and difficult to hunt.
- This observation is said to happen when two protons are converted to a neutron by their absorbing two electrons from an atomic shell.
- Scientists have been looking for the event using X-rays and auger electrons which are shielded from cosmic rays buried deep in the earth on a mountain.
“In a paper published in the journal Nature, researchers with the XENON Collaboration said they’d observed the radioactive decay of a substance called xenon-124, an isotope of the element xenon — a colorless and odorless noble gas found in tiny amounts in the atmosphere.”
Read more: https://bigthink.com/surprising-science/dark-matter-xenon
