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Fifth force discovered? [Nature]

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From the paper itself, on the abstract and repeated later, on the discussion of what brought interest onto the potential for a fifth force, an 8.6 (sigma) anomaly:
"The protophobic X boson may also alleviate the current 3.6 (sigma) discrepancy between the predicted and measured values of the muon's anomalous magnetic
moment."

It's not like the expectation that there is something going on within that specific scope is unprecedented, which gives some credence to the results. I have seen other literature discussing the aforementioned muon spin. It's just that making a statement such as "this is a new type of force acting upon this emitted particle" it considered... not conservative enough for many physicists. Still, this will require a lot of validation studies! And, of course, 3.6 and 8.6 don't exactly make zero... the mystery is definitely not solved yet.

Disclaimer: not a physicist, only particles I've worked with are plasma and bremsstrahlung from surfaces. So I'm taking the paper at face value, mostly.
 
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I wouldn't be too hopeful...But tbh I understand even less than I thought about particle physics experiments, since iirc 17 MeV is entirely in the power range of CERN which has been upgraded to low TeVs iirc, yet this went unnoticed.
 
Serguzzle said:
From the paper itself, on the abstract and repeated later, on the discussion of what brought interest onto the potential for a fifth force, an 8.6 (sigma) anomaly:
"The protophobic X boson may also alleviate the current 3.6 (sigma) discrepancy between the predicted and measured values of the muon's anomalous magnetic moment."

It's not like the expectation that there is something going on within that specific scope is unprecedented, which gives some credence to the results. I have seen other literature discussing the aforementioned muon spin. It's just that making a statement such as "this is a new type of force acting upon this emitted particle" it considered... not conservative enough for many physicists. Still, this will require a lot of validation studies! And, of course, 3.6 and 8.6 don't exactly make zero... the mystery is definitely not solved yet.
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I believe they're discussing two separate measurements. There's the 3.6 sigma discrepancy in the muon's anomalous magnetic moment and a 8.6 sigma discrepancy in the decay of beryllium-8. The paper appears to be saying both of these can be resolved by adding a protophobic X boson to the Standard Model.

As always, it appears we live in exciting times for physics. We just have to wait for more data.
 
There almost definitly is a fifth force... something is causing dark-matter to dark-matter interactions, besides gravity and while the weak and strong force are options there are also issues with them in that role.
 
Q99 said:
If there's enough of them, that can be the mysterious sixth ranger.
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The 'mysterious/additional ranger' doesn't require number six. Abaranger (AKA Dino Thunder) only have five member in total, including the later addition, Black and White.

Can't resist :p

That's not a bad idea for a sentai team, though. A physics theme will be a fresh one over theoft-repeated ninja/animal/vehicle themes. Chou-Butsuri (Super Physics) Sentai Quarkenger or something. :V
 
Salbazier said:
Chou-Butsuri (Super Physics) Sentai Quarkenger or something. :V
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But then it'd have to be Up Ranger, Down Ranger, Strange Ranger, Charm Ranger, Top Ranger, and Bottom Ranger, rather than Gravity Ranger, Electro Ranger, Strong Nuclear Ranger, Weak Nuclear Ranger, and Mysterious Fifth Ranger To Join Later.
 
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