MYSTERIES
THE PARTICLE
COULD SOLVE
The ‘reversed’ universe
For physicists, symmetry is the question
of whether a process or interaction is
symmetric and involves looking at how
it behaves when certain properties are
reversed. The axion field and particle
were invented to explain why strong-force
interactions, against expectation, maintain
charge-parity symmetry. Confirmation of
an axiflavon capable of displaying axion-like
properties in certain situations would resolve
the strong CP problem for once and for all.What is dark matter?
All of the universe’s visible material, from
stars and galaxies to interstellar gas and
dust clouds, accounts for just one-sixth of its
overall mass – the rest, revealed only through
the influence of its gravity, is not just dark,
but invisible and transparent. Evidence
suggests that dark matter consists of
unknown particles that cluster loosely
around concentrations of visible matter such
as galaxies – axiflavons, if their existence
is proven, could have just the properties
required for a dark matter candidate.Though hypothetical, the axiflavon promises to solve five of
the biggest mysteries in modern physics and cosmologyThe cause of inflation
The modern Big Bang theory requires inflation – a
burst of sudden expansion just after the moment
of creation in order to ‘smooth out’ the raw material
of the universe and give rise to the distribution of
matter we see today – but how did inflation work?
One theory involves a hypothetical ‘inflation field’,
giving rise to inflation particles whose properties
could also match those of the axiflavon. As inflation
came to an end and the universe continued to
cool, these particles decayed in the lower energy
conditions to produce today’s matter particles.The quark flavour problem
Quark particles come in six distinct ‘flavours’- the common up and down quarks found in
everyday matter, and the exotic strange, charm,
top and bottom quarks. In theory quarks should
be able to change flavour through the weak
interaction, but the huge differences between
different flavours complicate the question. The
hypothetical flavon field resolves the problem
using namesake particles to give the quarks
different amounts of ‘drag’ through the mass-
producing Higgs field. Axiflavons are ideal
particles for controlling these interactions.
The Higgs boson mass mystery
First proposed in 1964 and discovered
at the Large Hadron Collider in 2012, the
Higgs boson confirms the existence of the
mass-producing Higgs field and completes
the Standard Model of particle physics. But
why does this particle apparently weigh so
much less than it should? Axiflavon-Higgs
unification suggests that the mystery could
be explained if the Higgs is just one aspect of
a multi-purpose particle.“ We found that the flavon and the
axion could be realised together as
two components of a single ‘complex’
scalar field” Dr Florian Goertz
Solving the universe