Kerry Sheridan advises that a “US atom smasher may have found new force of nature” (YahooNews, April 7 08:07 am)
Data from a major US atom smasher lab may have revealed a new elementary particle, or potentially a new force of nature that could expand our knowledge of the properties of matter, physicists say.[ … ]
While much remains a mystery, researchers agree that this is not the “God Particle,” or the Higgs-boson, a hypothetical elementary particle that has long eluded physicists who believe it could explain why objects have mass.
“The Higgs-boson is a piece that goes into the puzzle that we already have,” said Punzi. “Whereas this is something that goes a little bit beyond that — a new interaction, a new force.”
[ … ]
The US machine began its work in the mid 1980s, and is scheduled for shutdown later this year when its funding runs dry.
[ … ]
According to D0 physicist Gregorio Bernardi, the presentation of the findings created a stir.
“This is not yet what we call a discovery, since this is possibly a statistical fluctuation, but it is already quite significant, and could be evidence for physics beyond the standard model,” he said.