FILE -In this March 22, 2007 file photo, the magnet core of the world's largest superconducting solenoid magnet (CMS, Compact Muon Solenoid) at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)'s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) particle accelerator, in Geneva, Switzerland. Disappointed physicists from the Large Hadron Collider report that what initially could have been an intriguing new particle turned out just to a statistical burp. Last December, researchers at the European Center for Nuclear Research saw two readings of what could have been a new particle that would not have fit with the existing main physics theory. The same center in 2012 discovered the Higgs boson or “God particle.” (AP Photo/Keystone, Martial Trezzini, File) (The Associated Press)
WASHINGTON – Disappointed physicists from the Large Hadron Collider report that what initially could have been an intriguing new particle has turned out just to a statistical burp.
Last December, researchers at the European Center for Nuclear Research saw two readings of what could have been a new particle that might have upended the existing main physics theory. The same center in 2012 discovered the Higgs boson or "God particle."
The early unconfirmed new particle readings in December set the physics world abuzz. Scientists poured over the more data from high-speed atom crashes while theorists tried to figure out what it all means.
At a Chicago physics conference Friday, Tiziano Camporesi, a CERN chief scientific spokesman, said more data show that what they saw was nothing, just a random statistical fluctuation.
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