NP: Particle X may connect the visible world with dark matter.

[Chris v]

;)

On Sat, Nov 23, 2019, 8:10 AM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> > From: "Lawrence A. Janowitch" <Ljano at msn.com>
> > Date: November 23, 2019 at 9:00:57 AM EST
> > To: aki fleshler <aki.fleshler at gmail.com>, "Rick Abel (cfabel at sfasu.edu)"
> <cfabel at sfasu.edu>, "Mark Kohut (mark.kohut at gmail.com)" <
> mark.kohut at gmail.com>, "Aaron Kleiner (aaron at kurzweiltech.com)" <
> aaron at kurzweiltech.com>, "Frank Caine (facaine at gmail.com)" <
> facaine at gmail.com>
> > Subject: FYI => (from CNN -- can't count on anything anymore...) :
> Hungarian scientists may have found a fifth force of nature
> >
> > 
> > A 'no-brainer Nobel Prize': Hungarian scientists may have found a fifth
> force of nature
> > By Ryan Prior, CNN
> > 7 hrs ago
> >
> > Essentially the entirety of physics centers on four forces that control
> our known, visible universe, governing everything from the production of
> heat in the sun to the way your laptop works. They are gravity,
> electromagnetism, the weak nuclear force, and the strong force.
> > © Courtesy of Attila Krasznahorkay Physicist Attila Krasznahorkay,
> right, works with a fellow researcher at the Institute for Nuclear Research
> at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
> > New research may be leading us closer to one more.
> > 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, Irvine, told CNN he's been following the Hungarian team's work
> for years, and believes their 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.
> > Hungarian scientists are building on 2016 results
> > Three years ago, the Hungarian researchers published a similar paper in
> Physical Review Letters, one of the most prestigious journals in physics.
> > The nuclear physics experimental team had been studying another isotope,
> beryllium-8, as it decays down to a ground state. They saw electrons and
> positrons splitting off from the atom at unusual angles.
> > Those findings, which showed particles coming off beryllium-8 at around
> a 140-degree angle, were strange and new.
> > "We introduced such a new particle, which nobody saw before, and which
> existence could not be understood by the widely accepted 'Standard Model'
> of particle physics, so it faced scrutiny," Krasznahorkay said in an email.
> > The findings by Krasznahorkay's team didn't get much attention at first,
> but they raised Feng's eyebrows. He said he "didn't want to leave
> potentially revolutionary results just sitting on the table."
> > A physicist in California developed a theory to explain the unusual
> results
> > In short, it could change physics as we know it, or it could have just
> been a simple lab error.
> > "Some people said they screwed up," Feng said.
> > But he believed the Hungarians were for real. His research group
> published a paper on the heels of the Hungarians' 2016 work, laying out a
> theory to observe what Krasznahorkay's experimental team had seen.
> > They referred to this unseen fifth force in action as a "photophobic
> force," meaning that it was as though the particles were "afraid of light."
> > Meanwhile, nuclear physicists around the world set to work looking for
> errors in the Hungarians' work, and have come up empty-handed over the past
> few years.
> > "Some very well-known nuclear physicists have done that exercise," Feng
> said.
> > The numbers seemed to add up, and no one could find ways their equipment
> was calibrated incorrectly.
> > And Feng said his own team was comparing the Hungarian experiments with
> "with every other experiment that's been done in the history of physics."
> > The only way to explain X17 was a hitherto undetected "fifth force."
> > The findings point toward the Holy Grail of physics
> > To move their breakthrough idea from 2016 forward, the Hungarians would
> need to repeat the results again. That's exactly what their 2019 results do.
> > Feng says there was only a one in a trillion chance that the results
> were caused by anything other than the X17 particle, and this new fifth
> force.
> > He added that if another research group could repeat these results with
> a third type of atom in addition to beryllium and helium, "that would blow
> the cover off this thing."
> > Experimental research groups have already been reaching out to him
> hungry to do that.
> > More sightings of the fifth force could lead to scientists settling on a
> specific name for it, understanding its workings more deeply, and
> developing practical applications for how to harness its power.
> > They're leading us closer to what's considered the Holy Grail in
> physics, which Albert Einstein had aimed at but never achieved. Physicists
> hope to create a "unified field theory," which would coherently explain all
> cosmic forces from the formation of galaxies down to the quirks of quarks.
> > But the universe isn't giving up its secrets easily.
> > "There's no reason to stop at the fifth," Feng said. "There could be a
> sixth, seventh, and eighth force."
> >
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