Another force of nature may just have been discovered. Well, at least they found some evidence. Forces of nature are at play everywhere in our lives. Up to now, only four have been found and every phenomenon can be categorized into these four. The existing forces of nature are gravity, electromagnetism, strong force, and weak force.
Researchers say that they may have found signs of a fifth force at play. These findings come from a group of researchers in a laboratory in Chicago. The UK’s Science and Technology Facilities Council or STFC said that the result “provides strong evidence for the existence of an undiscovered sub-atomic particle or new force”.
The experiment was called the Muon g-2 experiment. It basically searches for any sign of new phenomena by studying the behavior of muons, a sub-atomic particle. They are even smaller than the atom but 200 times heavier than an electron. The experiment consists of sending the particles around a 14-meter ring and then applying a magnetic field. According to the laws of physics, the muons should wobble under this force at a certain rate.
What the scientists observed was the muons wobbling at a faster rate than predicted. Now there is a big chance that this may just be a statistical fluke. But scientists suspect that there may be another force at nature at play here. Professor Mark Lancaster, the UK lead for the experiment said that “We have found the interaction of muons is not in agreement with the Standard Model.”
Dr. Mitesh Patel from Imperial College London said that “The race is really on now to try and get one of these experiments to really get the proof that this really is something new. That will take more data and more measurements and hopefully show evidence that these effects are real”.
There are some unexplained phenomena in the universe that may just be explained using the existence of this fifth fundamental force. But it has to be discovered first.
