A University of California Irvine press release promotes research into the decay of an isomer of the short-lived radioisotope beryllium-8.
Noting that
a 6.8σ anomaly has been reported in the opening angle and invariant mass distributions of e+ e- pairs produced in 8Be nuclear transitions,
physicists propose "a 17 MeV protophobic gauge boson" (for comparison, an electron's mass is 0.51 MeV) to explain the observations, saying that the particle's existence could also account for a "discrepancy in the muon anomalous magnetic moment." The force conveyed by the particle is believed to only affect electrons and neutrons, and only at short distances.
further information:
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Wednesday August 17 2016, @09:06AM
For arXiv articles, please link to the abstract page instead of the PDF.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 3, Informative) by butthurt on Wednesday August 17 2016, @10:41AM
Protophobic Fifth Force Interpretation of the Observed Anomaly in $^8$Be Nuclear Transitions
https://arxiv.org/abs/1604.07411 [arxiv.org]
Particle Physics Models for the 17 MeV Anomaly in Beryllium Nuclear Decays
https://arxiv.org/abs/1608.03591 [arxiv.org]