Figure 1 Producing a pentaquark
In the summer of 2015 CERN scientists announced that they had detected particles known as pentaquarks. These short-lived particles, composed of five quarks, had long been predicted, but had not been reliably detected. Quarks are normally found in groups of three (forming baryons, including the proton and neutron) or in quark–antiquark combinations (these are mesons). Pentaquarks can be produced when energetic gamma rays are fired at a deuterium target (Figure 1).
CERN, the European particle physics laborator y, is a multinational organisation founded in the aftermath of the Second World War. It now has 21 member states (Figure 2).
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