Physicists at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, USA, have just come across what may be the fifth fundamental force of nature. The suspicion arose after evidence was found that subatomic particles called muons are not behaving according to the standards of current physics theory.
“We are talking about a fifth force because we cannot necessarily explain the behavior [nesses experimentos] with the four we know”, he explained to The Guardian The Doctor. Mitesh Patel of Imperial College London, who tries to find fault with the Standard Model, but at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Switzerland.
If the current discoveries, made at a US particle accelerator facility (Fermilab), are confirmed, they could certainly represent a new revolution of sorts in modern physics.
How was the fifth force observed?
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The fundamental forces of nature can be reduced to four categories: gravity, electromagnetism, strong force e weak strength. These interactions regulate the behavior of subatomic particles and all types of bodies in our universe.
Since 2021, o Fermi suggests the possibility of a fifth force in naturebut this is the first time the measurement uncertainty was reduced by a factor of two, according to scientist Brendan Casey. “We are really exploring new territory. we are determining [as medições] with better precision than ever seen before,” he said.
To prove their hypothesis, the researchers performed an experiment called “g minus two (g-2)”, in which they accelerated muons around a ring 15 meters in diameter, circling them up to a thousand times at almost the speed of light. But the measurements did not follow the expected prediction in the standard model, which “may be a sign that there is some unknown particle appearing in the loops,” a sign of a fifth force, says the study.
What happens if scientists confirm a fifth force?
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Despite being robust, the evidence observed by the Fermilab team is still not conclusive to confirm the existence of a fifth fundamental force. The researchers estimate that in two years they will have reduced the theoretical uncertainties and managed to achieve their goal, although they are in a “race” with the European LHC.
The consequences of the discovery of a fifth force of nature could lead to the solution of some enigmas of science, such as: what is the composition of dark matter? What does dark energy consist of? Why does the universe contain more matter than antimatter?
Scientists have long known that to address these important questions, need to go beyond the confines of the Standard Model. In this sense, this oscillation of muons observed in the Tevatron particle accelerator, at Fermilab, can work as small clues to reach a revolutionary scientific advance
2023-08-17 21:00:00
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