Have we found key to how the universe works?

EXCITED scientists believe they may have discovered a new force of nature which could be the first step in truly understanding how the universe works.

The breakthrough, which has been hailed as the holy grail for physicists, could shed light on the ‘dark matter’ which makes up 85 per cent of the cosmos but remains a mystery to us.

At present scientists use the Standard Model of particle physics to explain the workings of the subatomic world around us.

It describes three of the four forces of nature which govern our world, including electromagnetism and ‘ strong’ and ‘ weak’ nuclear forces, and classifies the smallest particles into building blocks of matter or force carriers.

But it fails to explain gravity and it has long been thought the model is just a stepping stone to a more complete explanation.

Now scientists at the Cern labothe ratory in Geneva think they may have found evidence of a fifth force in the Large Hadron Collider – the giant machine built in a 17-mile circular tunnel under the FrenchSwiss border which smashes particles together at huge speeds to test the limits of physics.

After analysing trillions of collisions, they found that some of ‘building block’ particles were not behaving as expected.

According to the Standard Model, an unstable type called beauty quarks should break down into more stable electrons and muons at roughly the same rate.

Instead, the researchers discovered more electrons than muons were being created, at a rate of 100 to 85. Scientists think the imbalance could be explained by a theoretical particle called a ‘Z prime’ – which may act as a carrier of the new force of nature.

The results could also lead to the discovery of other new particles which might explain some of the biggest cosmic mysteries which the Standard Model fails to – including the dark matter which holds galaxies together.

Dr Mitesh Patel, of Imperial College London, one of the leading physicists behind the discovery at Cern, said: ‘We were actually shaking when we first looked at the results, we were that excited.’

Explaining there is a tiny chance the results are a statistical fluke, he said: ‘It’s too early to say if this genuinely is a deviation from the Standard Model but the potential implications are such that these results are the most exciting thing I’ve done in 20 years in the field.’

Dr Konstantinos Petridis, another member of the team from Bristol University, said: ‘The discovery of a new force in nature is the holy grail of particle physics.’

‘Shaking when we saw the results’