Fifth force of nature may transform study of physics

A FIFTH force of nature might have been discovered after scientists carried out a “Nobel Prize-worthy” experiment that could revolutionise our understanding of the world.

Physics is based on the theory that four forces control our universe – gravity, electromagnetism, the weak nuclear force and the strong force.

But scientists from Hungary have published findings that show what appears to be a fifth force at work.

Researchers from the Institute for Nuclear Research at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences studied how an excited helium atom emitted light as it decayed. They noticed that the particles split at the unusual angle of 115 degrees – a phenomenon that cannot be explained by our current knowledge.

Presuming it was not the result of an error, it could be an unknown force that caused the particles to separate in the strange way they did.

Scientists have described it as a “photophobic force” as the behaviour of the particles – christened X17 – suggested they were “afraid of light”.

Jonathan Feng, a professor of phys

‘If [this] can be replicated, then this would be a nobrainer Nobel Prize. There’s no reason to stop at the fifth’

ics and astronomy at the University of California, said the finding was incredibly impressive and could pave the way to uncovering more currently unknown forces.

“If these results can be replicated then this would be a no-brainer Nobel Prize,” he told CNN. “And there’s no reason to stop at the fifth – there could be a sixth, seventh, and eighth force.”

If physicists are able to achieve the same result again, they can then work on understanding how that force operates and find ways to harness its power.

The discovery is seen as taking us one step closer to the holy grail of physics: “unified field theory”. This is a single theoretical framework that succinctly explains all forces of nature.

Attila Krasznahorkay, the study’s lead scientist, said the finding is similar to one the team made three years ago.

Other nuclear physicists around the world have been looking for errors in the Hungarians’ work but so far have not been able to find any.