Notable Events
On 9 October 2005, BaBar recorded a record luminosity just over 1 × 1034 cm−2s−1 delivered by the PEP-II positron-electron collider. This represents 330% of the luminosity that PEP-II was designed to deliver, and was produced along with a world record for stored current in an electron storage ring at 1,732 mA, paired with a record 2,940 mA of positrons. "For the BaBar experiment, higher luminosity means generating more collisions per second, which translates into more accurate results and the ability to find physics effects they otherwise couldn’t see."
In 2008, BaBar physicists detected the lowest energy particle in the bottomonium quark family. Spokesman Hassan Jawahery said: "These results were highly sought after for over 30 years and will have an important impact on our understanding of the strong interactions."
In May 2012 BaBar reported that their recently analyzed data may suggest possible flaws in the Standard Model of particle physics. These data show that a particular type of particle decay called "B to D-star-tau-nu" happens more often than the Standard Model says it should. In this type of decay, a particle called the B-bar meson decays into a D meson, an antineutrino and a tau-lepton. While the level of certainty of the excess (3.4 sigma) is not enough to claim a break from the Standard Model, the results are a potential sign of something amiss and are likely to impact existing theories, including those attempting to deduce the properties of Higgs bosons.
Read more about this topic: BaBar Experiment
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