RE: June 17th, 2020 - a great discovery in (astro)particle physics?
You are viewing a single comment's thread:
I sincerely want to appreciate you guys for this wonderful discovery. I really hope y'all extend a hand to Africa. We are seriously lagging behind in science and discovery of new ideas, especially in physics. I was wowed by what i've read and i hope some day, i get to experience this in Nigeria, Africa. So sad though😣
0
0
0.000
Unfortunately, we cannot say (at least yet) this is a discovery. There are too many unknowns about this. First, the significance of the signal is only 3.5 sigma. This means there is 1 chance in 2,000 that it is originating from a background fluctuation. To claim a discovery, this number must be reduced to 1 chance in 1,750,000. We are by far not there. Maybe with more data, in a close future, we will know more. In the meantime, we must also clarify the background mis-modelling option raised by the XENON1T collaboration. This may be a game changing.
To answer the second part of the comment, particle physics is in Africa too. I am personally working with collaborators in South Africa, various important astrophysics experiments are run in Namibia, and maybe you will be interested in the ASP initiative. This is a school for African students I had the chance to teach at. The idea is to bring students from all the African countries to one place, at which they receive various lectures on fundamental science.
I am however unaware of any particle physics research group from Nigeria. @gentleshaid? Do you have more information here?