High-energy collisions between protons have unearthed two new particles.

Named Ξ′b and Ξ*b, the particles were discovered by the LHCb experiment team at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, Europe's particle-physics laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland. Like protons, the particles are made up of three quarks, but they each include a heavyweight 'beauty' or 'bottom' quark, making the particles six times heavier than the proton. Although consistent with the standard model, these particular arrangements of quarks have never previously been observed.

Studying the properties of these particles could help scientists to better understand the strong nuclear forces that bind protons and neutrons together in an atom.

Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 062004 (2015)