Quarks unexpectedly breaking symmetry in a recent experiment may transform our fundamental understanding of matter and the forces that hold it together.
Mississippi State University Professor of Physics Dipangkar Dutta is leading a groundbreaking experiment that is reshaping our understanding of the universe. His team’s research, recently published in the prestigious journal Physics Letters B, shows that the concept of “symmetry” in physics does not always behave the way scientists have long believed.
For generations, symmetry has been a central idea in physics, helping researchers explain how nature works on the smallest and largest scales. These new findings push the boundaries of what we know and open exciting possibilities for advances in energy, technology, medicine, and more.
The experiment took place at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. Researchers discovered that quarks, the tiny particles that make up protons and neutrons, sometimes act in surprising ways. When struck by high-energy electrons, quarks do not always split and recombine symmetrically, challenging long-standing theories in nuclear physics.
Redefining the Boundaries of the Strong Force
The research team’s high-precision measurements challenge the status quo and offer new insight into the strong force that binds subatomic particles. These findings may impact how future experiments interpret quark behavior and the structure of matter.
“The assumptions we make based on symmetries greatly simplify our analyses,” said Dutta, a faculty member in the MSU Department of Physics and Astronomy. “But they haven’t been tested quantitatively with precision until now. Our new results show when the symmetries are valid and when they need certain corrections.”
By uncovering symmetry violations, Dutta and his collaborators are helping refine the theoretical tools physicists use to study subatomic behavior. Their work also lays the groundwork for future studies into other, more subtle symmetries, potentially revealing more about the inner workings of protons and neutrons—the particles that form the core of every atom.
Reference: “Flavor dependence of charged pion fragmentation functions” by H. Bhatt, P. Bosted, S. Jia, W. Armstrong, D. Dutta, R. Ent, D. Gaskell, E. Kinney, H. Mkrtchyan, S. Ali, R. Ambrose, D. Androić, C. Ayerbe Gayoso, A. Bandari, V. Berdnikov, D. Bhetuwal, D. Biswas, M. Boer, E. Brash, A. Camsonne and X. Zheng, 17 April 2025, Physics Letters B.
DOI: 10.1016/j.physletb.2025.139485
Funding: U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. National Science Foundation, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
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19 Comments
Quarks unexpectedly breaking symmetry in a recent experiment may transform our fundamental understanding of matter and the forces that hold it together.
VERY GOOD.
Are you sure that what you observe in your research is the full picture of things?
Although symmetry governs natural laws, physics must have a correct understanding of it. What humans see and observe in scientific research can never be the entirety of things. Today’s physics uses two sets of cobalt-60 rotating in opposite directions as mirrors to construct a more shameless pseudo scientific theoretical system than the “geocentric model” in the history of science.
For nearly a century, physics has been manipulated by this pseudo scientific theoretical system and the interest groups behind it, wasting a lot of manpower, funds, and time, conducting countless pseudo scientific studies, and causing serious negative impacts on scientific and social progress, as well as humanistic development.
If researchers are truly interested in symmetry, please visit https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/1908596980432761028.
Model of Fundamental Particle on 4 foot rock ready. It will be uploaded on YouTube soon.
I’m still waiting for any explanation as to how all the laws of the universe were miraculously created in the big bang explosion.
This is the equivalent of a complete, working major city arising from a H2 bomb explosion.
“miraculously created”
Inventing a description, someone awaits a n o t h e r ‘s explanation.
I will posit that the Earth is flat, and wait around for someone to explain w h y it is flat.
No one (authoritative) has ever said that that’s when the laws of physics were created. And the Big Bang, if it occurred as currently modeled (and there are a few outstanding models) was NOT an explosion, despite its name… it was a rapid expansion in which we are still engaged. Some physicists believe in a time before the Big Bang. But whatever it was, G_d works in mysterious ways.
The laws of the universe existed prior to the big bang, which is only a point in a circle or spiral of a multiverse.
Exactly. Which means the Big Bang didn’t actually create “our reality” as so many seem to imply.
So what was there before the Big Bang? A ball of energy waiting to “expand”? So where did it come from? And who/what/how created the elementary particles and the physical laws they operate under?
VERY GOOD!
Today’s physics uses two sets of cobalt-60 rotating in opposite directions as mirrors to construct a more shameless pseudo scientific theoretical system than the “geocentric model” in the history of science. For nearly a century, physics has been manipulated by this pseudo scientific theoretical system and the interest groups behind it, wasting a lot of manpower, funds, and time, conducting countless pseudo scientific studies, and causing serious negative impacts on scientific and social progress, as well as humanistic development.
If researchers are truly interested in science, please visit https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/15959054249 and https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/595280873.
That is a mystery that science has no answer
Absolute space as the universal substrate for all material motion shows no empirical evidence of compressibility, viscosity, or anisotropy. If absolute space indeed possesses incompressible, non-viscous, and isotropic physical characteristics, physics lacks any evidentiary basis to deny its qualification as an ideal fluid medium. Disregarding the incompressible, non-viscous, and isotropic ideal fluid properties of absolute space, the reckless promotion of two counter-rotating cobalt-60 isotopes as mirror-image counterparts has constructed a pseudoscientific theoretical framework more shameless than the “geocentric model”, laying bare the corruption, filth, and ugliness permeating contemporary physics and so-called peer-reviewed publications (including Physical Review Letters, Nature, Science, etc.).
For nearly a century, physics has been manipulated by this pseudo scientific theoretical system and the interest groups behind it, wasting a lot of manpower, funds, and time, conducting extensive pseudoscientific research that violates CP and violates natural laws, and causing serious negative impacts on scientific and social progress, as well as humanistic development.
If researchers are truly interested in science, please visit https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/1906678707730506847. This may update your understanding of science and so-called peer-reviewed publications.
Could it be that maybe the universe has no beginning or end, and that all those planets and galaxies we se have all to do with human beings?
Could it be that there exists super highly advanced worlds and advanced human beings in those worlds?
I mean we also live on one of these planets though not highly advanced.. however with tech we are heading there.?
The simplest explanation is usually the correct ~Occam’s Razor
Great point. I also have a problem with all the complexity and order we observe came from a random explosion. It takes a lot of faith to believe that.
We all are excited to understand the nature’s creations. Hope soon we get some good results too!!
Jojo,
I am still waiting for your explanation as to why you think big bang is like an H2 explosion. (Hint: it is not)
I am also waiting for your explanation (along with supporting evidence) as to how laws of the universe were “miraculously” created,
maths, laws, forces, moral goodness, peace, love are eternal, the physical world down to its smallest components are a manifestation of these eternal properties which are in the mind of an eternal supreme beyond imagination being who we should (or should I say must) accept as GOD. and all of these laws, forces, moral goodness and all else that is included in the eternal properties will only have one thing in mind, that is for the bringing about and sustainment and well being of life. Anything contrary to well being love peace joy etc will be opposed or not in line with the maths laws forces and so on, and whatever small tiny minute part of our galaxy we are in, if we walk contrary to the well being factors or laws and precepts in the mind of GOD, then the laws, mathematical calcs and so on in place will keep on keeping on but mankind will suffer, because the keep on keeping on of these eternal things is for man to be good not evil. We have a choice The laws of the universe will always be for the good of life. I am a nobody in these discussions, but I very much enjoy the comments and debates. Great work carried out by scientists which makes for better understanding, and makes even more grand the love of GOD.
Which god are you referencing here?
The Buddha!
“The laws of the universe will always be for the good of life”
LOL 😂😒 go to space within a few dozen light years of a super Nova and wait. See if that gamma ray burst is good for your life. Or easier, go play with some plutonium and see how good that radiation is for life. With so man
Also, which god/ways to act are you talking about? Not all are compatible.
You don’t need to go to light years away. Most of earth is covered with water. We can’t survive there. We can’t survive in arctic cold. We can’t survive in arid deserts. Neil de Grasee Tyson sums it up propery when he says that most of nature is trying to kill us and that’s the purpose of creation if there is indeed a purpose.