Physics could soon be revolutionised after scientists claim that they are closer to discovering a fifth force of nature.
Scientists at Chicago based lab Fermilab have found evidence that muons - which are sub-atomic particles - are behaving in an unpredictable way. Though they have yet to determine why, if they discover the cause, it will lead to a breakthrough in physics.
This is because there are four current categories of forces confirmed, dubbed the Standard Model.
These four forces - which include gravity, electromagnetism, the strong force and the weak force - govern how all objects and particles in the Universe interact with each other.
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So, if there was a fifth force of nature, it would question everything currently known about particles.
The US particle accelerator facility first announced 2021 that there could be the possibility of a fifth force of nature, and ever since that declaration they have been gathering as much data as possible to prove their theory.
According to Dr Brendan Casey, a senior scientist at Fermilab: "We're really probing new territory. We're determining the (measurements) at a better precision than it has ever been seen before."
In an experiment titled, 'g minus two (g-2)', the scientists accelerate the sub-atomic particles called muons around a 15m-diameter ring, which are then circulated about 1,000 times at approximately the speed of light.
Within the experiment, they found even more evidence that the muons do not behave in accordance to the Standard Model, which has led them to believe that it’s due to a new force of nature, though they haven’t found conclusive evidence.
Among one of the scientists at the LHC attempting to find flaws in the Standard Model, Dr Mitesh Patel from Imperial College London told BBC News: "Measuring behaviour that doesn't agree with the predictions of the Standard Model is the holy grail for particle physics. It would fire the starting-gun for a revolution in our understanding because the model has withstood all experimental tests for more than 50 years."
But Fermilab isn’t the only team trying to prove their theory as scientist at the Large Hadron Collider in Europe are also in on the race.
The reason that the battle to get in there first with the theory is so great is because the discovery of a fifth force and any particles associated with it are not part of the Standard Model of particle physics.
So, it would crack open the entire theory for re-evaluation.
As the team now knows that there are "physics beyond the Standard Model" because of the muons behaving at odds to the current Model, this leaves open a massive question as to what the cause is.
Like dark matter, which isn’t part of the Standard Model and actively spins galaxies faster than they should, this new force could be just as big of a discovery for the future of science.
Topics: Science, News, Technology, Space
Britt Jones