Experts from CERN continue to carry out their experiments, which they began at the beginning of the year and used the Large Hadron Collider for this. Presumably, they are close to an incredible discovery, which could be the largest in the last century.
In early spring, scientists began to talk about the presence of some new physics, and also that another force of nature had been discovered. Representatives of CERN made a statement about the discovery, which does not fit at all with the existing model of elementary particle physics.
The Large Hadron Collider has produced results that are evidence of the possible existence of a new force, unknown to science today.
Standard model
The Standard Model of Particle Physics describes everything we know about the physical substances that make up the world around us, according to Harry Cliff, a physicist at Cambridge University.
But it only describes three of the four fundamental forces: electromagnetic force, and strong and weak forces other than gravity. Also, the Standard Model does not explain the nature of dark matter, which prevails in the universe.
“So most physicists are convinced that there are still forces to be discovered, and studying particles known as b-quarks or pretty quarks is a good way to discover something new,” Cliff says.
That is why scientists believe that there is another force that still needs to be discovered and it will be able to explain everything. Particles such as pretty quarks are also worth studying.
Pretty quarks are unstable
Pretty quarks are unstable: they live on average about 1.5 trillionths of a second before decaying into other particles. How lovely quarks decay can be strongly influenced by the existence of other fundamental particles or forces.
When a pretty quark decays, it turns into a collection of lighter particles, such as electrons, under the influence of a weak interaction.
“A new force of nature can manifest itself by subtly altering the frequency at which pretty quarks decay into different types of particles,” Cliff says.
Previous experiment
It was the study of these particles that the specialists started at the beginning of the year. The result of the study was very interesting, but not yet final, so an additional experiment was carried out some time ago.
The experts found that it didn’t matter which pairs of quarks were used, the decay took place inside in exactly the same way. Then they noticed that muon decay occurs 70% more often when compared to electron decays. This may prove to be proof of the existence of the fifth force of nature.
“In March, we studied the decay of pretty quarks paired with up quarks. And we studied two decays: in one, pretty quarks were paired with down quarks, and in the other they were also paired with up quarks,” Cliff says.
According to scientists, there is still a high probability that this is just an accident. But this probability is already less than in March.
“Although the result of a new experiment cannot yet claim to be a new discovery, we are still on the verge of a major breakthrough in physics,” Cliff says.
According to researchers, it is still necessary to carry out experiments in order to make sure that they managed to see a new, fifth force of nature.
