In a laboratory in Batavia, Illinois, 200 physicists from seven countries have made possibly the greatest scientific discovery in decades.
It involves a subatomic particle called a Muon. It’s like an 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 with a giant magnetic field at the speed of light, it began to wobble like a top in a way that conflicts with the standard model.
“There may be some new particles we can’t explain, popping up in and out of the world that move it slightly differently than calculated,” said Rosi Reed, an associate professor of physics at Lehigh University.
Reed says it could be an indication of a fifth force, or lead to explanations of cosmic mysteries.
“The standard model says nothing about gravity, another is that the standard model can not fully explain why we exist, such as why there is more matter than antimatter,” Reed said.
There has not been a discovery like this since 2012, when the Higgs Boson was confirmed. It is the particle that gives other particles mass.
Fermilab scientists still have a lot of data to analyze and will do more experiments to find out if it is something new or the result of unknown information about existing forces.
Either way, Reed says it will cause scientific study for generations to come.