Atoms are typically made up of a nucleus and electrons, but scientists are proposing to search for a new kind of atom that has neither. Tauonium (sometimes called “ditauonium” or “true tauonium”) is made up of a negatively charged tau lepton and its positively charged antimatter counterpart, antitau.
The tau lepton is a relative of the electron. Each tau has about 3,500 times the mass of an electron and is heavier than a proton. In the 1950s, scientists discovered an atom called positronium, which consists of an electron and its positively charged antiparticle, a positron. If tauonium were discovered, it would be a much tougher atom.
Scientists suggest searching for tauonium by smashing electrons and positrons together in future particle accelerators designed to produce tau leptons, which have been proposed in both China and Russia. Such facilities We may discover thauonium within a year Physicist Jinhan Hu of the Beihang University in Beijing and his colleagues wrote on April 4: Science BulletinTo reduce experimental uncertainties, the researchers propose examining the ratio of probabilities of two different types of particle interactions in a collision.
Without the complexity of atomic nuclei, the study of tauonium could probe quantum electrodynamics, the theory of physics that describes electrically charged particles. The study of positronium has already been used to test this theory (SN: August 24, 2020).
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