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CHICAGO – The great explanation that physicists use to describe how the universe works may have some major new flaws that need to be fixed after a fundamental particle was found to have more mass than scientists thought. “It’s not just something that’s wrong,” said Dave Tobak, a particle physicist at Texas A&M University and a spokesman for the US government’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, which conducted the experiments. Copied from other laboratories, “it literally means that something fundamental to our understanding of nature is wrong.” Physicists in the laboratory crushed particles together for 10 years and measured the mass of 4 million W bosons. These subatomic particles are responsible for a fundamental force at the center of the atoms and only exist for a fraction of a second before they decompose into other particles. “They are constantly entering and disappearing into the quantum foam of the universe,” Toback said. The difference in mass from that predicted by the prevailing theory of the universe is too great to be a rounding error or anything that could easily be explained, according to a study by a team of 400 scientists from around the world published Thursday in the journal Science. . The result is so amazing that it must be confirmed by another experiment, scientists say. If confirmed, it would present one of the biggest problems still created by the world’s detailed manual of rules for scientists, called the standard model. Duke University physicist Ashutosh V. Kotwal, who led the analysis project, said it was like discovering that there was a hidden room in your home. Scientists have speculated that there may be an undiscovered particle that interacts with the W boson that could explain the difference. Perhaps dark matter, another misunderstood component of the universe, could play a role. Or maybe there’s just a new physics they just don’t understand right now, the researchers said. The standard model says that a W boson should measure 80,357,000 electron volts, plus or minus six. “We found it a little more than that. Not so much, but it’s enough,” said Giorgio Chiarelli, another Fermi scientist and director of research at the Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics. The Fermi scale put the W boson at a heavier 80,433,000 electron volts, plus or minus nine. Quantum mechanics is really beautiful and weird. Anyone who has not been deeply concerned about quantum mechanics has not understood it.
– Dave Toback, particle physicist at Texas A&M University
It does not seem to be a big difference, but it is huge in the subatomic world. But both the team and the experts who did not participate in the research said that such a big claim requires additional evidence from a second group, which they do not have yet. “It’s an incredibly delicate measurement, it requires an understanding of different calibrations of various small effects,” said Claudio Campagnari, a particle physicist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who was not a member of the Fermi team. “These guys are really good. And I take them very seriously. But I think at the end of the day what we need is a confirmation from another experiment.” Earlier, less accurate measurements of the W boson by other groups were found to be lighter than expected, so “there may be something wrong with this experiment,” said Caltech physicist Sean M. Carroll, who did not participate in the study. that “it’s absolutely worth taking very seriously”. The finding is important because of its potential effect on the typical model of physics. “Nature has facts,” said Duke Kotwal. “The model is the way we understand these facts.” Scientists have long known that the standard model is not perfect. It does not explain dark matter or gravity well. If scientists are to discuss it to explain these findings, they must make sure that it does not reject the mathematical equations that now explain and well predict other particles and forces, the researchers said. It is a recurring problem with the model. A year ago a different team found another problem with the standard model and how muons react. “Quantum mechanics are really beautiful and weird,” Toback said. “Anyone who has not been deeply concerned about quantum mechanics has not understood it.” ×
