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RESEARCHERS MAY HAVE DISCOVERE...“This bizarre behaviour of particles could be proof of the existence of the mysterious fifth force of nature”
A study conducted by a Hungarian team of researchers may have discovered the existence of a fifth force of nature. Scientists believe that this could change the human understanding of physics today. According to the studies so far, there are four forces of nature; gravity, the weak nuclear force, electromagnetism and the strong force. Researchers at the Institute for Nuclear research at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences studied the manner in which helium particles split at an odd angle, an occurrence that is unexplainable by the current laws of physics. Assuming that it was not due to a lab error, this bizarre behaviour of particles could be proof of the existence of the mysterious fifth force of nature. Scientists are calling this force ‘photophobic’ as the particles seemed to be afraid of the light. "This feature is similar to the anomaly observed in 8Be and seems to be in agreement with the X17 boson decay scenario. We are expecting more, independent experimental results to come for the X17 particle in the coming years," wrote the researchers in the study report.
Dark matter makes up about 85 percent of the universe and scientists believe that the discovery could help explain the mysterious forces of dark matter. It could also help with a new unified fifth force theory that combines the existing four forces of nature.
However, another study conducted a few months ago by a team of researchers at the Imperial College of London has denied the possible existence of the fifth force.