Scientists at Fermilab are far from the fifth force of nature

Scientists They found more evidence of that subatomic particlescalled muons, which do not behave in the way current subatomic theory predicts Physics.

the Scientists They think that a Unknown power It can work on muons.

More data will be needed to confirm these findings, but if verified, it could be the beginning of a revolution in physics.

All the forces we experience every day can be reduced to just four categories: Gravity, electromagnetism, the strong force and the weak force. These four fundamental forces control how all objects and particles in the universe interact with each other.

The results were made at a particle accelerator facility in the United States called Fermilab. They build on findings announced in 2021 in which the Fermilab team first suggested the possibility of a fifth force of nature.

Since then, the research team has collected more data and reduced the uncertainty in their measurements by twofold, according to Dr. Brendan Casey, chief scientist at Fermilab.

The researchers believe that they will get the data they need and that the theoretical uncertainty will be reduced to two years, which is enough to achieve their goal.

However, his opposing team European Large Hadron Collider (LHC) She hopes to get there first.

the Δρ Mitch Patel from Imperial College London among thousands of physicists LHC who are trying to find flaws in the Standard Model. He told BBC News that the first people to find experimental results that contradict the Standard Model would be one of the most important discoveries ever made in physics.

“Measuring behavior that does not agree with the predictions of the Standard Model is the holy grail of particle physics. It will revolutionize our understanding because the Standard Model has withstood all experimental tests for more than 50 years.”

to Fermilab She says her next set of results will be the “final confrontation” between theory and experiment that may reveal new particles or forces.

Researchers know there is what they describe as “physics beyond the Standard Model” because current theory can’t explain many things astronomers observe in space.

These include the fact that galaxies continue to accelerate after the Big Bang that created the universe, rather than slowing down. Scientists say the acceleration is driven by an unknown force called “Dark Energy”.

Galaxies are also spinning faster than they should be, according to our understanding of how much matter is in them. Researchers believe the cause is due to an invisible particle called “dark matter,” which again is not part of the Standard Model.

The results have been published in the Journal Physical Review Letters.