In a lab in Batavia, Illinois, 200 physicists from seven countries have made possibly the greatest scientific discovery in decades.
It is a subatomic particle called a Muon. It’s a kind of electron, but 200 times heavier.
Until now, the standard model, or blueprint for the 17 fundamental particles of the universe, has focused on four forces: electromagnetism, gravity, strong interaction, and weak interaction.
But after Fermilab scientists accelerated a Muon at the speed of light through a massive magnetic field, it began to wobble like a top, in a way that was contrary to the Standard Model.
“There may be some new particles that look like, we don’t take into account, popping up in and out of existence and pushing it a little bit differently than calculated,” said Rosi Reed, associate professor of physics at Lehigh University. .
Reed says it could indicate a fifth force, or lead to explanations of cosmic mysteries.
“The Standard Model says nothing about gravity, another is that the Standard Model cannot fully explain why we exist, such as why there is more matter than antimatter,” said Reed.
There has been no such discovery since 2012, when the Higgs Boson was confirmed. That is the particle that gives mass to other particles.
Scientists at Fermilab still have a lot of data to analyze and will conduct more experiments to find out whether this is something new or the result of unknown information about existing forces.
Regardless, Reed says it will lead to scientific study for generations to come.