The team must finish analyzing the experiment’s data by 2025 and determine if it can be said to be a new force of nature.
9 hours ago
Image: CERN/Disclosure
There are four fundamental forces in the world: gravity, electromagnetism, the strong nuclear force, and the weak nuclear force. However, a study by US scientists suggests that there may be a fifth force: the interaction of muons.
Although not well known, muons are unstable subatomic particles. They are similar to electrons, but 207 times heavier.
Each of these particles contains an internal magnet, which causes them to vibrate in the presence of a strong magnetic field.
Scientists at Fermilab, a particle-studying laboratory in Illinois, USA, are using these particles to analyze the fundamental forces of nature.
The discovery is the latest in a series of promising results from particle physics experiments conducted in the United States, Japan, and the Large Hadron Collider.
In the research, the scientists sent the particles around a 14-meter superconducting magnet, then applied a magnetic field. According to what we know about the laws of physics, this should make the muons oscillate a certain way.
The probe showed, however, that the muons were oscillating at a faster rate than expected. An entirely new force of nature upon science could explain this discovery.
A potential revolution in science
No one yet knows what this new latent force is doing, other than affecting muons. Another theory is that it may be associated with a yet-to-be-discovered subatomic particle.
The team hopes to finish analyzing data from the last three years of the experiment by 2025 and determine whether or not this can be said to be a new force of nature.
“We’re really exploring new areas. We’re defining (measurements) with better precision than ever before BBC Brendan Casey, chief scientist at Fermilab.
The fifth fundamental force may help explain some of the great mysteries about the universe.
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