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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.
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)
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Tuesday November 26 2019, @03:40PM
I like funny. A lot. But . . . Actually, seriously, that would be amazing rather than funny if something like that were to happen. Astonishing even.
Or it could be the basis of a scifi story, or overly special effects laden movie.
Like the two slit experiment, it's only waves if there is no way you can know which slit the single particle goes through.
Delayed Choice Quantum Eraser [wikipedia.org]. "Some have interpreted this result to mean that the delayed choice to observe or not observe the path of the idler photon changes the outcome of an event in the past."
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