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posted by martyb on Monday November 25 2019, @09:15PM   Printer-friendly

A 'no-brainer Nobel Prize': Hungarian scientists may have found a fifth force of nature

Scientists at the Institute for Nuclear Research at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Atomki) have posted findings showing what could be an example of that fifth force at work.

The scientists were closely watching how an excited helium atom emitted light as it decayed. The particles split at an unusual angle -- 115 degrees -- which couldn't be explained by known physics.

The study's lead scientist, Attila Krasznahorkay, told CNN that this was the second time his team had detected a new particle, which they call X17, because they calculated its mass at 17 megaelectronvolts. "X17 could be a particle, which connects our visible world with the dark matter," he said in an email.

Jonathan Feng, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California at Irvine told CNN he's been following the Hungarian team's work for years, and believes its research is shaping up to be a game changer. If these results can be replicated, "this would be a no-brainer Nobel Prize," he said.

X17 particle.

Also at ScienceAlert and Popular Mechanics.

2016: Observation of Anomalous Internal Pair Creation in 8Be: A Possible Indication of a Light, Neutral Boson (open, DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.042501) (DX)


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 26 2019, @02:33AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 26 2019, @02:33AM (#924758)

    Maybe. It might have to add a whole new section to the standard model, but it doesn't have to change what is already there. And nobody believes the standard model is complete and accurate. It doesn't account for dark matter or dark energy.

    Regarding not seeing it before, it's not like they take a close-up slow-motion film of all the collisions in atomic accelerators. Some cloud chambers and photo-films show individual events, but they usually pick out the ones that clearly show what they are demonstrating. Things like the LHC mostly produce statistical data.
    If this particle production is low probability enough, it could be lost in the noise. The cheapest thing to do now would be to get an estimate of how likely, and see whether it fits the historical data from accelerator runs.

    The most exciting thing would be if there are charged versions, and it is stable. Replacing electrons in an atomic structure with particles 34 times as heavy would result in a material with phenomenal density, and even more phenomenal strength. We're talking strong enough for uniform cross-section skyhook ribbons here.
    Might also be useful in warm fusion reactors, similar to muon-catalyzed fusion.