Discovered, mysterious new force of nature

A NEW force of nature may have been discovered – and it could shed more light on how the universe works.

The discovery was made by US researchers studying muons, particles much smaller than atoms that are among the fundamental building blocks of matter.

All matter is understood by the Standard Model of physics to be governed by the forces of gravity, electromagnetism and the so-called strong and weak nuclear forces.

But scientists in Chicago believe their work may suggest the existence of a fifth force, or a new particle. They used a particle accelerator – a large piece of equipment for studying subatomic matter – to make muons travel at high speed.

The particles would be expected to wobble at a certain rate under the Standard Model of physics but instead did so in an unexpected way. It is not known what caused this but researchers suggest it could be a new force or unknown particle. The discovery may help to explain the mysterious force known as ‘dark energy’, which has never been proved to exist but has been suggested as a cause of the universe expanding rapidly.

It comes two weeks after similar work at the Cern laboratory in Switzerland also pointed to an unexplained force when scientists observed unexpected results after smashing subatomic particles called ‘beauty quarks’ together.

The UK’s Science and Technology Facilities Council said the latest result from the

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in the US ‘provides strong evidence for the existence of an undiscovered subatomic particle or new force’.

Theoretical physicist Matthew McCullough of Cern, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, said the Americans’ Muon G2 experiment could ‘take us beyond our current understanding of nature.’

TV astronomer Brian Cox said: ‘This is important and exciting. It is getting close to the discovery of new physics beyond the Standard Model.’