By improving upon a classic experiment, physicists at Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (photo) have compared spin-polarized electrons bouncing off nuclei and the mirror image of that situation—achieved by flipping the electrons’ spin (inset).
How an electron interacts with other matter depends on which way it's spinning as it zips along—to the right like a football thrown by a right-handed quarterback or the left like a pigskin thrown by a lefty.
The result could give physics a new weapon in the grand hunt for new particles and forces.
In the latter approach, the new experiment gives physicists a way to probe for certain kinds of new forces, says Frank Maas, a nuclear physicist at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Germany.
http://news.sciencemag.org/physics/2014/02/quarks-know-their-left-their-right
How an electron interacts with other matter depends on which way it's spinning as it zips along—to the right like a football thrown by a right-handed quarterback or the left like a pigskin thrown by a lefty.
The result could give physics a new weapon in the grand hunt for new particles and forces.
In the latter approach, the new experiment gives physicists a way to probe for certain kinds of new forces, says Frank Maas, a nuclear physicist at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Germany.
http://news.sciencemag.org/physics/2014/02/quarks-know-their-left-their-right
