Bottom quark decay challenges standard model and supersymmetry

Ars Technica : Newly derived results from the BaBar experiment at SLAC are not in line with predictions from either the standard model of particle physics or one of the main variations of supersymmetry. BaBar, which ceased operation in 2008, smashed 9-GeV electrons into 3.1-GeV antielectrons. Among the short-lived particles produced in the collisions were bottom quarks, whose decays produce tau leptons at a theoretically predictable rate. Analysis of those decays revealed an excess of tau leptons, which is consistent with results from a similar experiment, the Belle collaboration in Japan. At just 3 standard deviations, BaBar’s measurements do not constitute a statistically significant result. But if the excess turns out to be real, it presents a serious challenge to the standard model, which is manifestly incomplete, and to a version of supersymmetry that proposes the existence of four Higgs particles.