Theoretical physicist reassures public, they’re not just making it up
She is a specialist in the “axion,” a hypothetical particle:
The existence of the axion was originally hypothesised with a far from frivolous purpose: to prevent particles that we know to be real from developing properties that we are pretty sure they don’t have. It originates in the Peccei-Quinn mechanism, named after its inventors Roberto Peccei and Helen Quinn. Here, it exists to stop the standard model of particle physics – our best stab yet at explaining how material reality works – from endowing a particle in the centre of all atoms, the neutron, with properties that are inconsistent with our laboratory observations…
Professor Sceptic was right. This is all hypothetical. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, “Axions may or may not exist – but we’re not just making things up” at New Scientist
Okay. But perhaps some physicists will still choose to research particles for whose existence there is actually evidence. One hopes that’s okay.
See also: Researchers: Experiment Turns Up No Evidence Of Theoretical Particle, The Axion
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