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elashri12/09/20242 repliesview on HN

It is an exotic nucleus composed of two protons, one neutron, and one lambda particle (which is a type of hyperon -fermions with three quarks- containing a strange quark). This configuration distinguishes it from regular helium-4, which consists solely of protons and neutrons. The inclusion of a lambda particle introduces "strangeness" into the nucleus, making it a hypernucleus [1].

PS: By exotic here it I use the term as used by particle physicists which just mean not your ordinary stuff discussed in the "popular" working groups. Not the linguistic meaning of the word exotic.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypernucleus


Replies

ninalanyon12/09/2024

Exotic is defined in the Cambridge Dictionary as:

"unusual and exciting because of coming (or seeming to come) from far away, especially a tropical country"

That doesn't seem too far from the use of it in physics. The "tropical country" part is clearly optional but could be replaced by "especially a special group of scientists".

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bilsbie12/09/2024

What are the properties of this? Any cool applications?

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