Improved search for elementary particles with fractional electric charge

Journal Article · Sat Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 1996 · Physical Review, D

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.53.6017· OSTI ID:284554

Mar, N M; Lee, E R; Fleming, G R; Casey, B C; Perl, M L; Garwin, E L ^[1]; Hendricks, C D ^[2]; Lackner, K S ^[3]; Shaw, G L ^[4]

---

1. Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Stanford, California 94309 (United States)
2. W. J. Schafer Associates, Livermore, California 94550 (United States)
3. Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 (United States)
4. Department of Physics, University of California, Irvine, California 92717 (United States)

We have devised and demonstrated the successful operation of a low-cost, high-mass throughput technique capable of performing bulk matter searches for fractionally charged particles based on an improved Millikan liquid drop method. The method uses a stroboscopic lamp and a charge coupled device video camera to image the trajectories of silicone oil drops falling through air in the presence of a vertical, alternating electric field. The images of the trajectories are computer processed in real time, the electric charge on a drop being measured with an rms error of 0.025 of an electron charge. This error is dominated by Brownian motion. In the first use of this method, we have looked at 5974941 drops and found no evidence for fractional charges in 1.07 mg of oil. With 95{percent} confidence, the concentration of isolated quarks with {plus_minus}1/3{ital e} or {plus_minus}2/3{ital e} in silicone oil is less than one per 2.14{times}10{sup 20} nucleons. {copyright} {ital 1996 The American Physical Society.}

• Research Organization: Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
• DOE Contract Number: AC03-76SF00515; W-7405-ENG-36
• OSTI ID: 284554
• Journal Information: Physical Review, D, Journal Name: Physical Review, D Journal Issue: 11 Vol. 53; ISSN PRVDAQ; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

66 PHYSICS
CHARGED PARTICLES
ELECTRIC CHARGES
ELECTRIC FIELDS
PARTICLE IDENTIFICATION
QUARKS
TRAJECTORIES