Scientists have discovered a fifth fundamental force of nature, the study said. "If that's true, it's revolutionary," says the study's lead author Jonathan Feng, Professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Irvine.

"For decades, we know about four fundamental forces: gravity, electromagnetism and the strong and weak nuclear forces," said Feng. "If podtverzhdaetsya further experiment, the discovery of a possible fifth force will completely change our view of the Universe, with implications for unification of forces and dark matter."

Feng and his colleagues analyzed data collected in recent nuclear physics in the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, which tried to find a "dark photons" - a hypothetical indicators of the mysterious dark matter. Dark matter is thought to be about 85 percent of all matter in the Universe, but no one absorbs and does not emit light, so that they cannot be detected directly.

The Hungarians have found evidence of previously unknown particles is 30 times heavier than the electron - as a result, they published an article about it. "The experimenters are unable to prove that it was a new power," said Feng. "They just saw an excess of events that pointed to a new particle, but it was not clear whether it was really a particle or a force carrier particles."

New work by Feng and his team suggests that the Hungarians have not found a "dark photon", but rather "protophobic X-boson" - a strange particle whose existence may indicate a fifth force of nature. Known electromagnetic force acts on protons and electrons, but that the newfound particle is apparently interacts only with the protons and neutrons, and then only for very short distances, the researchers say.

A fifth force may be associated with the electromagnetic weak and strong nuclear forces, as a "manifestation of more fundamental forces," said Feng.

"It is possible that these two sectors interact with each other in a few veiled, but the fundamental interactions," said Feng.

Although this premise is intriguing, the researchers stressed that their interpretations are preliminary and that further research and experiments are needed. Indeed, the alleged particles observed in accelerators occasionally produce statistical flukes.

The good news is that many scientists can do the necessary follow-up work, said Feng.
sections: Society, World News