There are four fundamental forces of physics that supposedly govern the behaviour of every particle and planet in the universe.
According to results seen yesterday at a US laboratory, however, there’s a strong chance we might need a fifth.
Researchers have discovered evidence of a new kind of physics, and potentially an entirely new force of nature, in findings that scientists said could help solve the biggest problem in particle physics.
The Standard Model has been used to explain the subatomic world for over half a century. Scientists know, however, that it cannot be the whole story.
It describes three of the fundamental forces that govern our lives: electromagnetism, the strong force that holds particles together and the weak force involved in radioactive decay. It is, though, incompatible with the fourth, gravity.
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For this reason physicists have been looking to move beyond it.
Now scientists at Fermilab, a particle accelerator near Chicago, have found that a type of subatomic particle called a muon behaves significantly differently in a magnetic field than it should according to the accepted laws of physics.
Scientists spun muons around a 15-metre magnetic ring at nearly the speed of light, and noted the speed at which they wobbled. It was different from what would be expected when calculated using the Standard Model.
This implied, said Chris Polly from Fermilab, “there might be monsters we haven’t yet imagined, that are emerging from the vacuum interacting with our muons”. If the results are correct only new physics could explain them.
The experiment has not yet reached the technical standard of proof physicists require to declare a discovery, although the researchers estimate there is a 1 in 40,000 possibility the findings could occur by chance.
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Professor Mark Thomson, executive chairman of the Science and Technology Facilities Council, said: “What we are now seeing could be glimpses into a new world of physics.”
