{"id":246505,"date":"2026-11-04T06:39:56","date_gmt":"2026-11-04T12:39:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/11\/physicists-step-closer-to-the-zeptoverse-after-42-year-particle-search"},"modified":"2026-11-04T06:39:56","modified_gmt":"2026-11-04T12:39:56","slug":"physicists-step-closer-to-the-zeptoverse-after-42-year-particle-search","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/11\/physicists-step-closer-to-the-zeptoverse-after-42-year-particle-search","title":{"rendered":"Physicists step closer to the \u2018Zeptoverse\u2019 after 42-year particle search"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Physicists have found evidence of a particle decay so rare that it is expected to occur only around once in every 10 billion \u201cbeauty\u201d particles. The result, from the upgraded LHCb experiment at CERN\u2019s Large Hadron Collider (LHC), follows a search spanning more than 40 years and brings physicists closer to exploring the \u201cZeptoverse\u201d\u2014an unexplored world that exists at distances of a billionth of a trillionth of a meter, or a \u201czeptometer,\u201d where new particles and forces of nature may be hiding.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers from The University of Manchester have played key roles in the LHCb experiment and its major upgrade\u2014which can now collect data at up to five times its previous rate\u2014including developing detector technology that has helped make the new measurement possible.<\/p>\n<p>The finding will allow physicists to test the Standard Model, our current best theory of fundamental particles and their interactions, with greater precision and search for signs of particles or forces that may lie beyond it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Physicists have found evidence of a particle decay so rare that it is expected to occur only around once in every 10 billion \u201cbeauty\u201d particles. The result, from the upgraded LHCb experiment at CERN\u2019s Large Hadron Collider (LHC), follows a search spanning more than 40 years and brings physicists closer to exploring the \u201cZeptoverse\u201d\u2014an unexplored [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-246505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-particle-physics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246505\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}