VOA常速英语2016--美国费米实验室在神秘撞击中或瞥见未知粒子身影

Mysterious 'Bump' Baffles Fermilab Scientists Probing How World Works 美国费米实验室在神秘撞击中或瞥见未知粒子身影

BATAVIA, ILLINOIS —

It can't be seen with the naked eye, and it requires the power of the world's largest and most complex machine to find it. Yet it could change the very understanding of the known world of particle physics.

它无法用肉眼看到，而且需要借助世界上最庞大且最复杂机器的力量才能找到。然而,它的发现可能会改变已知粒子物理学世界的理解。

Right now, though, it's simply a "bump."

现在,它只是一次单纯的撞击。

"In particle physics, a bump is when you have a smooth data curve — which is what you expect — and you see a little excess, a little bump in the middle of it, and that often is indicative that you may have made a discovery of some kind," said scientist Don Lincoln.

“在粒子物理学中, 一次撞击中，当出现了你所预期的平滑数据曲线,而在其中你会发现一点点意料之外的能量激增现象,这通常代表你可能已有所发现。”

He's one of hundreds of scientists and researchers at Fermilab in suburban 1 Chicago reviewing the data produced by experiments at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, facility in Switzerland, which is home to the world's most powerful particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider, also known as the LHC.

多恩·林肯是芝加哥郊区费米实验室数百名研究欧洲大型强子对撞机（LHC）传回数据科学家的其中一位。

"Since about 1964," Lincoln explained, "we have invented a series of theories that, blended together, is called the Standard Model of Particle Physics and from that we can explain all data that we've taken. However, we can't explain this bump."

“从1964年开始,我们发明了一系列理论,我们将其混合在一起，这被称为粒子物理学的标准模型,而该标准模型框架可以解释我们的所有数据。然而,我们并不能解释这次撞击。”

Which means this "bump" could represent a new particle previously 2 unknown to scientists, and could fundamentally change understanding of particle physics.

这意味着这次“撞击”可能代表着科学家们前所未知的一个新粒子。

"If it is real, it's probably the biggest discovery of the last half century," Lincoln said.

Then again, he adds, maybe it isn't.

"It could be a discovery, or it could go away. It's in that sort of gray area," he added.

“如果能够证明它属实,这可能是过去半个世纪以来最伟大的发现。”

Long-distance collaboration 3

Fermilab, where Lincoln and other scientists sort through that gray area, is the home of the Tevatron accelerator, once the largest superconducting supercollider in the world. Though the Tevatron accelerator has been taken offline, and has been eclipsed by CERN's LHC, Fermilab remains 4 at the forefront of particle physics.

费米实验室最为著名的就是Tevatron加速器,它曾经是世界上最大的超导超级对撞机。虽然现在处于退役状态,在欧洲核子研究中心的LHC对撞机面前黯然失色,但费米实验室仍处在粒子物理学的前沿。

"We bring a certain amount of technology, know-how 5, to their machine because we started with a superconducting machine. So we have viable 6 knowledge to bring to the table," said Fermilab's director, Nigel Lockyer.

“我们给他们的机器带去了一定的技术,知识,因为是我们开创了超导机器的先河。因此我们有拿得出手的可行的知识。

Although the United States is one of the largest national collaborators for experiments conducted with the LHC in Switzerland, Lockyer noted 7 that particle physics is now a more global exercise.

费米实验室的主任奈杰尔·洛克伊尔表示粒子物理学现在已经成为全球性运动。

"We're into a new era of relationship between CERN and Fermilab, or between the United States and Europe, intertwining our particle physics programs," he said.

“围绕着我们的粒子物理项目，费米实验室和欧洲核子研究中心，或美国与欧洲的关系正迈入一个崭新的时代。”

What helps the interaction are technological 8 advances and global cooperation that allow scientists at Fermilab to remotely monitor and analyze 9 data produced by the LHC's particle collisions some 7,000 kilometers away. 

而维系这种关系的正是技术进步及全球合作,这使得费米实验室的科学家们能够远程监控并分析距离约7000公里远LHC的粒子碰撞数据。

Everything, or nothing

As the particle collisions continue to produce data, Lincoln says the watchful 10 eyes of more than a thousand scientists globally will arrive at one of two explanations for the "bump."

而随着这一最新可能的发现, 林肯表示存在两种说法。

"One is that this is just a random 11 statistical 12 fluctuation 13 and it will disappear with more data, and we need to be very clear about that," he explained. "The far more exciting possibility is that if it is real, yes, absolutely it is a completely fascinating thing that will rewrite our understanding of how the world works."

“其一这只是一次随机统计起伏，而随着更多的数据传回它就将消失,因此我们需要明确这点。然而,更令人兴奋的可能性是,如果它真的切实存在,是的,它绝对是完全令人着迷的东西，因为这将改写我们对于宇宙的认知。”

The LHC starts a six-month run of proton-smashing collisions, which is expected to produce six times the amount of data previously available to scientists.

LHC开始为期6个月的质子粉碎碰撞试验,科学家们会帮助解答这次“撞击”是否是一种全新的粒子,或还是为了更好理解粒子物理学的标准模型路上的坎坷。

Somewhere in that data may lie the answers scientists are looking for either to prove the existence of a new particle, or allow them to dismiss the "bump" as nothing more than a bump in the road to better understanding the Standard Model of Particle Physics.