WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.480 --> 00:00:05.599 Welcome to the quark Side Quantum Physics Podcast, an exploration 2 00:00:05.679 --> 00:00:10.880 of the fundamental structure of reality, where quantum laws govern matter, energy, 3 00:00:11.199 --> 00:00:16.239 and information. Here, uncertainty is a feature, not a flaw, 4 00:00:16.719 --> 00:00:19.239 and understanding begins at the smallest scales. 5 00:00:27.640 --> 00:00:32.679 So imagine you've been playing this deeply complex, just incredibly 6 00:00:32.719 --> 00:00:35.359 immersive video game for like fifty years. 7 00:00:35.439 --> 00:00:37.320 Oh wow, fifty years is a long. 8 00:00:37.159 --> 00:00:39.719 Time, right, I mean, you know every single line of code, 9 00:00:39.799 --> 00:00:43.039 you know every hit a mechanic, every exploit, and you 10 00:00:43.119 --> 00:00:45.960 know exactly how the underlying physics engine operates. 11 00:00:46.039 --> 00:00:47.840 You're basically a master of the game at that. 12 00:00:47.960 --> 00:00:51.479 Point, exactly. You drop an object, it falls, you jump, 13 00:00:51.520 --> 00:00:55.039 you come back down. You have entirely mastered the rules 14 00:00:55.079 --> 00:00:59.159 of this digital reality. And then one day you're just 15 00:00:59.240 --> 00:01:03.920 playing normally and your character glitches straight through a solid 16 00:01:03.920 --> 00:01:04.599 brick wall. 17 00:01:04.799 --> 00:01:05.799 That would be terrifying. 18 00:01:05.879 --> 00:01:07.640 You would stop dead in your tracks, right. It's that 19 00:01:07.680 --> 00:01:10.959 they're staring at the screen, just wondering is the game 20 00:01:11.159 --> 00:01:15.120 fundamentally broken or did I just stumble into a completely 21 00:01:15.159 --> 00:01:18.280 new set of underlying rules that have been hiding beneath 22 00:01:18.319 --> 00:01:19.879 the surface this entire time. 23 00:01:19.959 --> 00:01:22.400 It is the ultimate reality breaking moment. I mean, it's 24 00:01:22.439 --> 00:01:26.120 the kind of observation that forces you to entirely reevaluate 25 00:01:26.200 --> 00:01:29.120 the environment you're operating in, because when the rules you 26 00:01:29.159 --> 00:01:32.319 rely on suddenly fail, you're no longer just playing the game. 27 00:01:32.560 --> 00:01:36.400 You're forced to question the actual architecture of the game itself. 28 00:01:36.840 --> 00:01:40.920 And that, like that exact precipice, is where physicists are 29 00:01:40.959 --> 00:01:44.719 standing right now. We are looking at a potential crack 30 00:01:44.879 --> 00:01:46.840 in the most fundamental rules of. 31 00:01:46.799 --> 00:01:49.280 The universe, which is just wild to think about. 32 00:01:49.280 --> 00:01:52.680 It's totally wild. For half a century, the standard model 33 00:01:52.680 --> 00:01:57.519 of physics has ruled supreme as the undisputed law of 34 00:01:57.560 --> 00:02:01.640 the land. It's been practically bulletproof has but down at 35 00:02:01.680 --> 00:02:06.400 CERN's large hadron collider, particles are suddenly misbehaving. They're doing 36 00:02:06.439 --> 00:02:09.039 things the math says they absolutely should not be doing, 37 00:02:09.159 --> 00:02:11.439 not even a little bit right. So today we're on 38 00:02:11.479 --> 00:02:14.159 a mission to figure out what this anomaly actually is, 39 00:02:14.240 --> 00:02:17.319 why a bizarre microscopic event known as a quote penguin 40 00:02:17.360 --> 00:02:20.039 decay is sitting at the very center of the mystery, 41 00:02:20.240 --> 00:02:24.439 and whether this is going to completely rewrite modern physics 42 00:02:24.520 --> 00:02:26.800 or just fizzle out as another statistical ghost. 43 00:02:27.199 --> 00:02:30.520 We really are teetering on the edge of a massive 44 00:02:31.039 --> 00:02:34.879 paradigm shift here. But you know, to appreciate the gravity 45 00:02:34.879 --> 00:02:37.960 of a glitch like this, you have to understand the sheer, 46 00:02:38.240 --> 00:02:40.840 unyielding weight of the rule book. We are trying to 47 00:02:40.840 --> 00:02:43.919 break the fifty year old rule book exactly. The Standard 48 00:02:43.960 --> 00:02:47.360 Model isn't just some casual theory. It is the absolute 49 00:02:47.520 --> 00:02:52.400 bedrock of modern particle physics. It rests on quantum mechanics 50 00:02:52.439 --> 00:02:56.000 and Einstein's special relativity. And for fifty years scientists have 51 00:02:56.039 --> 00:02:57.919 thrown everything they possibly can at it. 52 00:02:57.960 --> 00:02:59.439 They've been trying to break it on purpose. 53 00:02:59.479 --> 00:03:01.719 Oh, absolutely, they want to break it. Yeah, and it 54 00:03:01.759 --> 00:03:04.159 is held up against every single stress test so far. 55 00:03:04.319 --> 00:03:07.280 Okay, let's unpack this because the open secret in physics 56 00:03:07.360 --> 00:03:10.560 is that we all know the Standard Model is deeply flawed. 57 00:03:10.719 --> 00:03:12.560 Well, yes, it definitely has its issues. 58 00:03:12.639 --> 00:03:16.159 It has massive glaring blind spots. I mean, it completely 59 00:03:16.159 --> 00:03:20.400 ignores gravity. It offers absolutely zero explanation for dark matter, 60 00:03:20.599 --> 00:03:23.240 this invisible substance that we know makes up roughly twenty 61 00:03:23.240 --> 00:03:23.879 five percent of. 62 00:03:23.800 --> 00:03:27.039 The entire universe, A huge chunk of reality just missing. 63 00:03:27.400 --> 00:03:30.560 Yeah, so I have to ask if this model is 64 00:03:30.599 --> 00:03:34.479 missing a quarter of the universe's mass, and completely ignores 65 00:03:34.520 --> 00:03:36.719 the force that keeps our feet planted on the ground. 66 00:03:37.520 --> 00:03:39.479 Why have we treated it as the holy grail of 67 00:03:39.520 --> 00:03:42.319 science for half a century without ripping it up and 68 00:03:42.360 --> 00:03:42.960 starting over. 69 00:03:43.599 --> 00:03:46.479 That's a very fair point. Yeah, But if we connect 70 00:03:46.520 --> 00:03:49.280 this to the bigger picture, you have to realize that 71 00:03:49.319 --> 00:03:53.000 you cannot throw away a theory just because it is incomplete, 72 00:03:53.599 --> 00:03:56.840 as long as it's predictive power in a specific domain 73 00:03:57.240 --> 00:04:01.639 remains miraculously precise. Oh, think of the standard model like 74 00:04:01.680 --> 00:04:04.960 a map of your immediate neighborhood that is accurate down 75 00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:07.639 to the millimeter of every single blade of grass. 76 00:04:07.719 --> 00:04:08.479 Okay, I like that. 77 00:04:08.919 --> 00:04:11.000 Yes, the map doesn't show you the rest of the globe. 78 00:04:11.039 --> 00:04:14.000 That's the missing dark matter and gravity. Right, But you 79 00:04:14.039 --> 00:04:16.800 can't throw that map in the trash because it flawlessly 80 00:04:16.879 --> 00:04:18.319 guides you through your local streets. 81 00:04:18.439 --> 00:04:20.600 Right, it still gets you to the grocery store exactly. 82 00:04:20.920 --> 00:04:24.040 Every single time physicists have run an experiment to test 83 00:04:24.079 --> 00:04:28.040 those local subatomic streets, the standard model has accurately predicted 84 00:04:28.079 --> 00:04:31.959 the result. To revise the framework, you need experimental data 85 00:04:32.040 --> 00:04:33.519 that explicitly contradicts it. 86 00:04:33.839 --> 00:04:37.279 But if this map is so accurate locally, how are 87 00:04:37.360 --> 00:04:40.600 we even finding these microscopic errors. We must be zooming 88 00:04:40.600 --> 00:04:43.199 into a ridiculous degree to find a flaw in the map. 89 00:04:43.240 --> 00:04:45.360 Oh we are. We're zooming in further than you can 90 00:04:45.399 --> 00:04:48.680 possibly imagine. That is the entire purpose of the Large 91 00:04:48.680 --> 00:04:53.160 Hadron Collider, and specifically the LHCb experiment. 92 00:04:52.759 --> 00:04:55.879 The twenty seven kilometer tunnel under the French Swiss border. 93 00:04:56.000 --> 00:04:59.680 That's the one by accelerating beams of protons to nearly 94 00:04:59.680 --> 00:05:02.600 the speed of light and smashing them together. We're looking 95 00:05:02.639 --> 00:05:06.680 at the subatomic debris. We are zooming in on incredibly rare, 96 00:05:06.879 --> 00:05:11.199 incredibly brief microscopic events, hoping to catch the math failing 97 00:05:11.319 --> 00:05:12.040 in real time. 98 00:05:12.240 --> 00:05:16.560 And that brings us to the anomaly itself, the electroweak 99 00:05:16.600 --> 00:05:17.480 penguin decay. 100 00:05:17.560 --> 00:05:18.240 I love that name. 101 00:05:18.319 --> 00:05:20.800 Aside from being arguably the greatest name for a scientific 102 00:05:20.839 --> 00:05:23.319 process ever, we need to break down what is actually 103 00:05:23.319 --> 00:05:25.360 happening in the collider. So we're looking at a sub 104 00:05:25.360 --> 00:05:28.279 atomic particle called a b misson, right, all right, And 105 00:05:28.480 --> 00:05:31.800 inside this misson there is a fundamental particle called a 106 00:05:31.839 --> 00:05:36.079 beauty quark, and in this specific anomaly, that beauty quark 107 00:05:36.120 --> 00:05:39.399 transforms into another type of particle called a strange quirk. Yes, 108 00:05:39.879 --> 00:05:42.759 and as it goes through this transformation, it spits out 109 00:05:42.879 --> 00:05:46.800 four other particles, a chon, a pion, and two muons. 110 00:05:47.120 --> 00:05:50.519 But what makes this so important isn't just the transformation itself, right, 111 00:05:50.600 --> 00:05:51.600 It's the rarity. 112 00:05:51.879 --> 00:05:54.759 The rarity is the entire key to the puzzle here. 113 00:05:54.639 --> 00:05:58.360 Because for every one million b messons, only one will 114 00:05:58.360 --> 00:06:00.199 decay in this specific manner. 115 00:06:00.319 --> 00:06:04.600 Right. What's fascinating here is how these particles transition. Usually 116 00:06:04.639 --> 00:06:07.519 a particle decay straightforwardly. You know, a particle A turns 117 00:06:07.560 --> 00:06:10.879 into particles B and C. Very simple, very simple, But 118 00:06:10.959 --> 00:06:14.240 in a penguin decay, it takes a highly complex detour 119 00:06:14.560 --> 00:06:17.839 through a quantum loop. When physicists map out this complex 120 00:06:17.879 --> 00:06:23.000 interaction using Feineman diagrams, which track how particles interact over time, 121 00:06:23.600 --> 00:06:26.720 the resulting drawing of the mathematical lines and loops sort 122 00:06:26.759 --> 00:06:27.319 of looks like a. 123 00:06:27.240 --> 00:06:30.120 Penguin, hence the name. But what is actually happening inside 124 00:06:30.160 --> 00:06:33.040 that drawing, Like, what is a quantum loop in physical reality? 125 00:06:33.160 --> 00:06:36.160 Well, inside that microscantic fraction of a second during the decay, 126 00:06:36.399 --> 00:06:38.800 the universe allows a particle to borrow a massive amount 127 00:06:38.839 --> 00:06:40.360 of energy from the quantum vacuum. 128 00:06:40.399 --> 00:06:42.519 Wait, it just borrows energy from nowhere. 129 00:06:42.639 --> 00:06:45.040 Basically, yes, as long as it pays it back almost instantly. 130 00:06:45.639 --> 00:06:50.600 The beauty quark briefly spawns incredibly heavy intermediate virtual particles 131 00:06:50.879 --> 00:06:54.519 that just pop into existence, interact, and then vanish as 132 00:06:54.560 --> 00:06:57.160 the transformation into a strange quirk completes. 133 00:06:57.360 --> 00:06:58.920 Okay, let me make sure you and I are on 134 00:06:58.959 --> 00:07:02.160 the same page here. These virtual particles don't exist permanently. 135 00:07:02.279 --> 00:07:04.519 They are just like ghosts, popping in and out of 136 00:07:04.519 --> 00:07:06.800 the quantum background to facilitate the decay. 137 00:07:07.279 --> 00:07:08.959 That is a perfect way to look at it. M h. 138 00:07:09.199 --> 00:07:13.040 And because this specific penguin decay is so incredibly rare, 139 00:07:13.240 --> 00:07:15.839 it is uniquely sensitive to that quantum background. 140 00:07:15.920 --> 00:07:16.879 Okay, I think them following. 141 00:07:17.040 --> 00:07:20.639 If there is a new, completely undiscovered heavy particle out 142 00:07:20.639 --> 00:07:23.560 there in the universe, it can also briefly pop into 143 00:07:23.639 --> 00:07:27.720 existence inside that quantum loop. Even if we cannot see 144 00:07:27.800 --> 00:07:31.839 this new particle directly, its momentary presence exerts a measurable 145 00:07:31.879 --> 00:07:32.959 influence on the decay. 146 00:07:33.040 --> 00:07:36.120 It tips the scales, so we aren't seeing a new particle. 147 00:07:36.240 --> 00:07:39.000 We are seeing the debris field of the decay and 148 00:07:39.040 --> 00:07:42.639 realizing the geometry of that debris is completely warped. The 149 00:07:42.759 --> 00:07:46.399 LHCb experiment found that the specific angles and energies at 150 00:07:46.439 --> 00:07:49.759 which those four particles the chaons, pions, and muons are 151 00:07:49.759 --> 00:07:52.399 being spit out, do not match the math of the 152 00:07:52.439 --> 00:07:55.240 standard model, not at all. It's like, uh, it's like 153 00:07:55.279 --> 00:07:57.920 feeding a dollar into a vending machine expecting a soda, 154 00:07:58.240 --> 00:08:00.480 but exactly one out of a million times times the 155 00:08:00.519 --> 00:08:02.439 machine spits out a fully baked pizza. 156 00:08:02.839 --> 00:08:04.360 That is a very weird machine. 157 00:08:04.439 --> 00:08:08.160 Right and right now, the entire physics community is gatted 158 00:08:08.160 --> 00:08:11.040 around staring at the pizza, trying to figure out how 159 00:08:11.040 --> 00:08:11.600 it got. 160 00:08:11.439 --> 00:08:15.160 There, because the output fundamentally defies the internal logic of 161 00:08:15.199 --> 00:08:19.639 the machine. Warped geometry at the sub atomic level implies 162 00:08:19.759 --> 00:08:23.439 unseen forces or particles tugging on the strings during that 163 00:08:23.560 --> 00:08:27.040 microscopic quantum loop. The predictions of the fifty year old 164 00:08:27.040 --> 00:08:28.079 game engine are failing. 165 00:08:28.279 --> 00:08:30.639 But let's pause and talk about the actual reality of 166 00:08:30.680 --> 00:08:33.759 this data. Because science isn't just about one weird observation, 167 00:08:33.960 --> 00:08:38.480 right It is deeply rooted in brutal, unforgiving statistic Oh. 168 00:08:38.480 --> 00:08:39.960 Absolutely, the math has to hold up. 169 00:08:40.039 --> 00:08:42.559 Right now, this anomaly is sitting at a four standard 170 00:08:42.600 --> 00:08:44.200 deviation tension a four. 171 00:08:44.120 --> 00:08:46.399 Sigma, which is high but not definitive. 172 00:08:46.879 --> 00:08:50.320 Right in plain English. After accounting for all the experimental 173 00:08:50.360 --> 00:08:53.639 and theoretical noise, there is a one in sixteen thousand 174 00:08:53.759 --> 00:08:56.919 chance that this warped geometry is just a random fluctuation 175 00:08:57.000 --> 00:08:59.759 in the data. Now, if you tell someone on the 176 00:08:59.759 --> 00:09:02.279 stree they have a one in sixteen thousand chance of 177 00:09:02.279 --> 00:09:05.399 something happening, they assume it's a guaranteed slam dunk. 178 00:09:05.480 --> 00:09:07.440 Sure in everyday life. 179 00:09:07.120 --> 00:09:11.159 But in high energy physics we collide billions and billions 180 00:09:11.159 --> 00:09:11.879 of particles. 181 00:09:12.279 --> 00:09:15.559 You are identifying the exact reason the physics community is 182 00:09:15.559 --> 00:09:19.240 treating this with rigorous skepticism. When you smash billions of 183 00:09:19.279 --> 00:09:24.200 protons together, incredibly rare statistical anomalies will happen purely. 184 00:09:23.879 --> 00:09:26.039 By chance, just a numbers game exactly. 185 00:09:26.080 --> 00:09:29.200 Physicists call this the look elsewhere effect. If you roll 186 00:09:29.240 --> 00:09:32.240 a twenty sided die millions of times, eventually you are 187 00:09:32.240 --> 00:09:34.440 going to roll ten twenties in a row. It doesn't 188 00:09:34.440 --> 00:09:36.559 mean the die is rigged. It just means you rolled 189 00:09:36.559 --> 00:09:39.320 it enough times for the improbable to become inevitable. 190 00:09:39.440 --> 00:09:42.320 And we have been burned by these statistical ghowths. So 191 00:09:42.440 --> 00:09:44.440 many times. I mean, if you are listening to this 192 00:09:44.480 --> 00:09:46.840 and wondering why scientists aren't throwing a parade right now, 193 00:09:46.879 --> 00:09:49.000 you have to look at the history of modern physics in. 194 00:09:49.080 --> 00:09:51.240 The very cautious field for good reason. 195 00:09:51.480 --> 00:09:55.240 It is littered with massive discoveries that hit four sigma, 196 00:09:55.440 --> 00:09:59.000 had everyone writing theoretical papers, and then simply vanished when 197 00:09:59.000 --> 00:10:02.320 the colliders gathered data, Like in nineteen ninety six, the 198 00:10:02.440 --> 00:10:07.279 LP collider saw a massive Higgs like excess that disappeared. 199 00:10:06.799 --> 00:10:08.279 YEP, completely evaporated. 200 00:10:08.320 --> 00:10:11.480 And in twenty fifteen the diffoton anomaly had the entire 201 00:10:11.519 --> 00:10:14.759 physics world buzzing, only to vanish a year later as 202 00:10:14.759 --> 00:10:15.519 a trick of the light. 203 00:10:15.600 --> 00:10:18.519 And we cannot forget the twenty eleven opera experiment. 204 00:10:18.159 --> 00:10:20.480 Oh Man, the faster than light neutrinos. 205 00:10:20.759 --> 00:10:21.519 That was wild. 206 00:10:21.840 --> 00:10:26.000 They published a six sigma result, which is incredibly mathematically secure, 207 00:10:26.080 --> 00:10:28.519 claiming particles were traveling faster than the speed of light. 208 00:10:28.600 --> 00:10:31.840 It would have completely broken Einstein's theory of special relativity. 209 00:10:31.879 --> 00:10:33.600 People are losing their minds over that one. 210 00:10:33.440 --> 00:10:37.200 And after months of absolute pandemonium in the scientific community, 211 00:10:37.600 --> 00:10:40.120 it turned out to be a faulty fiber optic cable 212 00:10:40.200 --> 00:10:40.960 in the machinery. 213 00:10:41.360 --> 00:10:44.200 The trauma of the opera experiment is exactly why critical 214 00:10:44.240 --> 00:10:47.360 thinking is non negotiable here. The gold standard for a 215 00:10:47.360 --> 00:10:51.679 confirmed discovery in physics is five sigma, which translates to 216 00:10:51.879 --> 00:10:55.480 roughly a one to one point seven million chance of 217 00:10:55.519 --> 00:10:56.639 a statistical fluke. 218 00:10:56.720 --> 00:10:57.919 And we just aren't there yet. 219 00:10:58.080 --> 00:11:00.799 We are not there yet, and beyond on just faulty 220 00:11:00.799 --> 00:11:05.240 equipment or statistical noise, there are theoretical hurdles within the 221 00:11:05.279 --> 00:11:09.879 standard model itself that could explain this weird data, specifically 222 00:11:10.320 --> 00:11:12.960 a set of processes known as charming penguins. 223 00:11:13.200 --> 00:11:16.440 Okay, wait, I thought the electroweak penguin was complicated. What 224 00:11:16.519 --> 00:11:18.399 on Earth is a charming penguin? 225 00:11:18.639 --> 00:11:21.120 It refers to a quantum loop de kay that involves 226 00:11:21.159 --> 00:11:25.039 a charm quark. These are known particles, completely accounted for 227 00:11:25.080 --> 00:11:28.720 in the Standard Model, but their effects are notoriously messy 228 00:11:28.799 --> 00:11:30.039 and difficult to calculate. 229 00:11:30.240 --> 00:11:32.919 So the math is just really hard exactly. 230 00:11:33.600 --> 00:11:36.759 The background noise of the strong nuclear force interacting with 231 00:11:36.799 --> 00:11:41.320 these charm quarks creates an incredibly chaotic mathematical environment. Some 232 00:11:41.440 --> 00:11:44.039 highly respected skeptics argue that we might not be seeing 233 00:11:44.039 --> 00:11:46.519 new physics at all. Oh, really, Yeah, we might just 234 00:11:46.559 --> 00:11:51.200 be severely underestimating the incredibly complex influence of these charming 235 00:11:51.240 --> 00:11:54.840 penguins within the existing rules. We might be mistaking Messi 236 00:11:54.960 --> 00:11:56.120 math for a new particle. 237 00:11:56.279 --> 00:11:58.440 So it's totally possible that the rules of the game 238 00:11:58.480 --> 00:12:00.519 aren't broken at all. The math is it's just way 239 00:12:00.519 --> 00:12:02.600 harder to calculate than we previously thought. 240 00:12:02.840 --> 00:12:07.360 That is a very real possibility. Furthermore, the researchers also 241 00:12:07.480 --> 00:12:10.879 analyze the data for something called cpasymmetry. 242 00:12:11.039 --> 00:12:11.840 Okay, what is that? 243 00:12:12.000 --> 00:12:14.799 This stands for a charge parity. Simply put, if you 244 00:12:14.840 --> 00:12:17.879 swap a particle for its antimatter twin and look at 245 00:12:17.879 --> 00:12:21.720 its spatial behavior in a mirror, the physics should theoretically 246 00:12:21.720 --> 00:12:26.200 look identical. Looking for cpasymmetry means checking if matter and 247 00:12:26.320 --> 00:12:29.720 antimatter are behaving differently in these specific. 248 00:12:29.200 --> 00:12:30.919 Decays, and what did the data show. 249 00:12:31.480 --> 00:12:36.679 Currently, those extracted cpasymmetry observables show absolutely no significant deviations 250 00:12:36.679 --> 00:12:40.159 from zero. They align flawlessly with the standard model. 251 00:12:40.240 --> 00:12:42.159 Okay, let me stop you there, because that feels like 252 00:12:42.200 --> 00:12:44.159 a massive wrench in the gears of this discovery. 253 00:12:44.200 --> 00:12:46.440 It is a pretty big hurdle if there really. 254 00:12:46.240 --> 00:12:50.919 Is a monstrous undiscovered heavy particle warping the geometry of 255 00:12:50.919 --> 00:12:54.360 this decay. Shouldn't it also be warping the CPA symmetry. 256 00:12:54.840 --> 00:12:57.399 How can the standard model be cracking so violently in 257 00:12:57.440 --> 00:13:00.240 the angles of the decay but holding perfectly firm when 258 00:13:00.240 --> 00:13:02.120 we look at the matter antimatter behavior. 259 00:13:02.360 --> 00:13:06.600 That is the multi billion dollar question right there. If 260 00:13:06.679 --> 00:13:10.399 new physics exists, it is highly selective in how it 261 00:13:10.440 --> 00:13:15.200 interferes with our visible universe. It requires theoretical physicists to 262 00:13:15.279 --> 00:13:18.720 thread an incredibly tiny needle to explain how a new 263 00:13:18.759 --> 00:13:22.360 particle could warp one aspect of the decay while leaving 264 00:13:22.360 --> 00:13:24.840 the cpasymmetry completely untouched. 265 00:13:25.120 --> 00:13:27.279 Okay, but let's play Devil's advocate for a second. 266 00:13:27.279 --> 00:13:27.840 Sure, let's do it. 267 00:13:27.960 --> 00:13:30.559 Let's assume this isn't a faulty cable. Let's assume the 268 00:13:30.600 --> 00:13:33.399 charming penguins aren't muddying the waters, and the lack of 269 00:13:33.440 --> 00:13:35.600 CPAs symmetry is just a quirk of how this new 270 00:13:35.600 --> 00:13:39.320 particle operates. If we get the next batch of data 271 00:13:39.360 --> 00:13:42.440 from the collider and this four sigma tension actually crosses 272 00:13:42.440 --> 00:13:46.320 that five sigma gold standard, what exactly is the new 273 00:13:46.360 --> 00:13:49.399 physics hiding in this data? What is the unseen monster 274 00:13:49.480 --> 00:13:50.320 pulling the strings? 275 00:13:50.679 --> 00:13:53.879 This raises an important question, and leading theories all point 276 00:13:53.919 --> 00:13:56.320 to a profound new addition to the universe, which is 277 00:13:56.360 --> 00:13:58.240 the potential existence of leptoquarks. 278 00:13:58.559 --> 00:14:01.039 Lepto quarks. It honestly sounds like a made up word 279 00:14:01.039 --> 00:14:02.039 from a sci fi novel. 280 00:14:02.320 --> 00:14:05.279 It does, doesn't it. To understand the magnitude of what 281 00:14:05.360 --> 00:14:07.720 elliptocork is, you just have to look at the name. 282 00:14:08.679 --> 00:14:12.159 In this standard model, the fundamental building blocks of matter 283 00:14:12.279 --> 00:14:16.080 are strictly divided into two distinct families. You have leptons 284 00:14:16.240 --> 00:14:19.080 like the electron or the muon, and you have quarks, 285 00:14:19.120 --> 00:14:21.039 which are the particles that combine to make up the 286 00:14:21.039 --> 00:14:25.080 protons and neutrons and atoms. Under the current rules of physics, 287 00:14:25.240 --> 00:14:27.279 these two families are entirely separate. 288 00:14:27.320 --> 00:14:28.000 They don't mix. 289 00:14:28.519 --> 00:14:31.960 Elliptin cannot transform into a quark, and a quark cannot 290 00:14:32.000 --> 00:14:35.879 transform into eleptin. The conservation laws explicitly forbid. 291 00:14:35.600 --> 00:14:36.960 It never the twain shall meet. 292 00:14:37.080 --> 00:14:42.320 But elliptocork is a hypothetical hyper massive fundamental particle that 293 00:14:42.360 --> 00:14:44.759 would completely shatter that barrier. It would act as a 294 00:14:44.799 --> 00:14:47.559 bridge uniting those two entirely different types of matter. 295 00:14:47.639 --> 00:14:49.200 Wait, it would let them talk to each other. 296 00:14:49.480 --> 00:14:53.039 It would theoretically allow a quark to emit eleptin, fundamentally 297 00:14:53.080 --> 00:14:56.000 breaking the conservation rules we have relied on for decades. 298 00:14:56.559 --> 00:15:00.320 If they exist, leptoquorks are popping into existence in inside 299 00:15:00.320 --> 00:15:03.840 those quantum loops during the penguin decay, allowing the beauty 300 00:15:03.879 --> 00:15:06.600 cork to interact with muons in a way the standard 301 00:15:06.600 --> 00:15:09.159 model explicitly says is impossible. 302 00:15:09.360 --> 00:15:11.159 Now we are getting to the core of this. But 303 00:15:12.000 --> 00:15:15.600 if I'm understanding the mechanics correctly, we are actually seeing 304 00:15:15.600 --> 00:15:19.080 elleptoqu work in the collider. The LAFC isn't powerful enough 305 00:15:19.120 --> 00:15:20.320 to create a particle. 306 00:15:19.960 --> 00:15:21.799 That massive, No, not even close. 307 00:15:22.039 --> 00:15:24.840 We're just seeing the weird way the B massun decays 308 00:15:24.879 --> 00:15:27.360 and deducing that eleeptochwork must be the cause. It's like 309 00:15:27.960 --> 00:15:31.360 we can't see the massive submarine passing deep underwater, but 310 00:15:31.440 --> 00:15:35.200 we can measure the strange, mathematically incorrect way the booyes 311 00:15:35.200 --> 00:15:36.840 on the surface of the ocean are bobbing. The b 312 00:15:36.960 --> 00:15:39.840 masson decay is the boo, the leptocork is the submarine. 313 00:15:39.960 --> 00:15:43.840 That is a brilliant way to conceptualize indirect observation. And 314 00:15:43.879 --> 00:15:46.720 if you look at the history of science, Indirect observation 315 00:15:46.879 --> 00:15:50.799 is a deeply validated method of discovery. Oh really, well, 316 00:15:50.799 --> 00:15:54.279 we observe the effects of radioactivity eighty years before we 317 00:15:54.320 --> 00:15:58.399 had the technological capability to directly see the w bosons, 318 00:15:58.879 --> 00:16:03.879 the actual fundamental particles responsible for the radioactive decay. Oh wow, Yeah, 319 00:16:03.919 --> 00:16:05.559 we saw the shadow on the wall for nearly a 320 00:16:05.639 --> 00:16:08.399 century before we had a light bright enough to illuminate 321 00:16:08.399 --> 00:16:12.320 the monster casting it. These leptoquarks are too massive to 322 00:16:12.360 --> 00:16:16.080 be synthesized directly, even by the extraordinary energies of the 323 00:16:16.159 --> 00:16:20.360 large Hadron collider, but their quantum influence is undeniable in 324 00:16:20.440 --> 00:16:22.480 these incredibly rare subatomic events. 325 00:16:22.919 --> 00:16:25.519 So we are currently standing the dark, staring at a 326 00:16:25.639 --> 00:16:28.320 very weird shadow, just waiting for enough buoys to bob 327 00:16:28.360 --> 00:16:30.919 in exactly the wrong way to prove the submarine is real. 328 00:16:31.279 --> 00:16:32.879 How long are we going to be waiting for the 329 00:16:32.960 --> 00:16:33.960 data to confirm this? 330 00:16:34.159 --> 00:16:37.200 It is entirely a game of data accumulation. Now, the 331 00:16:37.279 --> 00:16:40.039 current four sigma tension we are discussing is based on 332 00:16:40.080 --> 00:16:43.600 analyzing roughly six hundred and fifty billion b mesen decays. 333 00:16:43.679 --> 00:16:45.799 That's a lot of decays, it is, and those. 334 00:16:45.600 --> 00:16:48.559 Were recorded between twenty eleven and twenty eighteen, but the 335 00:16:48.600 --> 00:16:52.759 machine does not stop. Since then, the LHCb experiment has 336 00:16:52.799 --> 00:16:55.679 already recorded three times as much data. Oh nice, they 337 00:16:55.679 --> 00:16:59.159 are crunching those incredibly complex numbers right now, filtering out 338 00:16:59.200 --> 00:17:03.919 the background noise of the charming penguins and the statistical ghosts. Furthermore, 339 00:17:04.240 --> 00:17:08.880 an entirely independent experiment at the LHC called CMS published 340 00:17:08.920 --> 00:17:12.279 initial results in twenty twenty five that beautifully align with 341 00:17:12.359 --> 00:17:13.759 the LHCb anomaly. 342 00:17:14.039 --> 00:17:16.519 So it's not just one detector exactly. 343 00:17:16.839 --> 00:17:20.079 Having two separate detectors see the same warped geometry makes 344 00:17:20.119 --> 00:17:22.759 it much harder to blame a faulty fiber optic cable. 345 00:17:22.880 --> 00:17:25.720 And the LHC is still undergoing massive upgrades, isn't it. 346 00:17:25.839 --> 00:17:28.880 Yes, the technological advance as planned for the twenty thirties 347 00:17:28.920 --> 00:17:32.160 are staggering. Those upgrades are expected to accrue a data 348 00:17:32.200 --> 00:17:35.200 set fifteen times larger than what we currently possess. 349 00:17:35.319 --> 00:17:37.039 Wow, fifteen times. 350 00:17:36.839 --> 00:17:40.440 Yeah, that ultimate step will give us the overwhelming, undeniable 351 00:17:40.480 --> 00:17:44.559 volume of statistical power required to make definitive claims. It 352 00:17:44.559 --> 00:17:47.680 will either cement the leptocork into reality or erase the 353 00:17:47.680 --> 00:17:48.559 anomaly forever. 354 00:17:48.920 --> 00:17:51.759 I know that whenever the general public hears about new 355 00:17:51.839 --> 00:17:56.200 physics or undiscovered particles, the imagination tends to run pretty wild. 356 00:17:56.319 --> 00:17:59.119 You look at the comments online and people are immediately asking, great, 357 00:17:59.279 --> 00:18:01.240 does this mean we get warp drives next week? Can 358 00:18:01.319 --> 00:18:02.359 we build a teleporter? 359 00:18:02.680 --> 00:18:03.720 Right? The sci fi stuff? 360 00:18:03.759 --> 00:18:06.400 But while elliptoquark isn't going to help us build faster 361 00:18:06.480 --> 00:18:11.599 than light spaceships tomorrow, the actual immediate impact is arguably 362 00:18:11.759 --> 00:18:16.599 much more profound. It is a fundamental rewriting of elementary matter. 363 00:18:17.319 --> 00:18:20.920 Changes our understanding of the universe's most basic ingredients. 364 00:18:21.000 --> 00:18:25.880 It dictates an entirely new architecture of reality if electoquarks exist. 365 00:18:26.279 --> 00:18:29.160 It proves that the hard dividing lines we drew between 366 00:18:29.200 --> 00:18:32.759 different families of matter are nothing more than an illusion 367 00:18:32.880 --> 00:18:34.759 created by our limited perspective. 368 00:18:35.039 --> 00:18:35.759 It's all connected. 369 00:18:35.839 --> 00:18:38.599 It tells us that the universe is far more interconnected, 370 00:18:38.759 --> 00:18:42.359 far more fluid at its deepest microscopic levels, than the 371 00:18:42.400 --> 00:18:44.519 fifty year old standard model led us to believe. 372 00:18:45.000 --> 00:18:47.559 So here we are sitting on the precipice. We are 373 00:18:47.599 --> 00:18:50.559 just waiting for the next massive dump of LHC data 374 00:18:50.599 --> 00:18:53.839 to either confirm the shadow of these lepto quarks, or 375 00:18:53.880 --> 00:18:56.319 to debunt the penguin decay once and for all as 376 00:18:56.440 --> 00:18:57.359 just another trick. 377 00:18:57.160 --> 00:18:59.839 Of the light. And you know, regardless of the final 378 00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:03.119 statistical outcome, the pursuit itself is the entire point of 379 00:19:03.160 --> 00:19:07.240 the scientific method. Questioning long held beliefs, constantly prodding at 380 00:19:07.279 --> 00:19:10.440 the frameworks we implicitly rely on. That is the lifeblood 381 00:19:10.480 --> 00:19:11.680 of discovery. 382 00:19:11.359 --> 00:19:13.160 Because we have to keep checking the map. 383 00:19:13.559 --> 00:19:16.240 If we never question the standard model, if we accepted 384 00:19:16.240 --> 00:19:19.000 that the map was perfect, we would never even bother 385 00:19:19.119 --> 00:19:22.599 looking for the deeper physics they could finally explain dark 386 00:19:22.640 --> 00:19:24.319 matter or the nature of gravity. 387 00:19:24.720 --> 00:19:28.640 It is entirely about keeping that curiosity alive and refusing 388 00:19:28.720 --> 00:19:31.119 to accept that the game we are currently playing is 389 00:19:31.160 --> 00:19:32.359 the only game in town. 390 00:19:32.680 --> 00:19:36.079 Thank you so much for exploring the absolute frontier of 391 00:19:36.119 --> 00:19:37.880 this physics glitch with us today. 392 00:19:38.079 --> 00:19:40.599 It was a privilege to unpack the mechanics of it all. 393 00:19:40.720 --> 00:19:42.200 Before you go, I want to leave you with one 394 00:19:42.319 --> 00:19:45.839 final mind expanding thought to chew on if these heavy, 395 00:19:45.960 --> 00:19:49.759 undiscovered particles like leptoquarks really do exist, if they are 396 00:19:49.799 --> 00:19:52.759 secretly influencing matter today by popping in and out of 397 00:19:52.759 --> 00:19:56.160 microscopic quantum loops. What role did they play in the 398 00:19:56.240 --> 00:19:59.160 very first microsecond of the Big Bang, when the universe 399 00:19:59.200 --> 00:20:03.079 was infinitely den unimaginably hot and burn with energy, These 400 00:20:03.160 --> 00:20:06.680 massive particles wouldn't have been rare quantum ghosts. They would 401 00:20:06.720 --> 00:20:09.759