Whether you realize it or not, there are many fundamental forces that govern your life and
the life of the entire universe!
And now, scientists think that they may have discovered a fifth.
Join us as we explore this fifth (potential) fundamental force.
9.
Wait, Are The First Four Fundamental Forces Again?
What's that?
You don't know about the four fundamental forces of nature and the universe?
It's ok, they're a bit more basic than you might realize.
They are: Gravity, Electromagnetism, The Weak Force, and the Strong Force.
If you're looking for a bit more detail on that, here's the breakdown of each one:
Gravity: " Gravity is the attraction between two objects
that have mass or energy, whether this is seen in dropping a rock from a bridge, a planet
orbiting a star or the moon causing ocean tides.
Gravity is probably the most intuitive and familiar of the fundamental forces, but it's
also been one of the most challenging to explain."
Electromagnetism (also known as the Electromagnetic Force):
The electromagnetic force, also called the Lorentz force, acts between charged particles,
like negatively charged electrons and positively charged protons.
Opposite charges attract one another, while like charges repel.
The greater the charge, the greater the force.
And much like gravity, this force can be felt from an infinite distance (albeit the force
would be very, very small at that distance).
The Weak Force: "The weak force, also called the weak nuclear
interaction, is responsible for particle decay.
This is the literal change of one type of subatomic particle into another.
So, for example, a neutrino that strays close to a neutron can turn the neutron into a proton
while the neutrino becomes an electron."
The Strong Force: "The strong nuclear force, also called the
strong nuclear interaction, is the strongest of the four fundamental forces of nature.
It's 6 thousand trillion trillion trillion (that’s 39 zeroes total) times stronger
than the force of gravity, according to the HyperPhysics website.
And that's because it binds the fundamental particles of matter together to form larger
particles.
It holds together the quarks that make up protons and neutrons, and part of the strong
force also keeps the protons and neutrons of an atom's nucleus together."
I know we just threw a lot of big fancy words at you, but I hope these brief description
of these complex forces helped you understand about what we're talking about in regards
to these fundamental forces.
These are the literal bread and butter of the universe, and they're something that never
truly stops going or working.
Because if they did, it would likely mean the END of our universe.
And we wouldn't want that, now would we?
8.
The Theory Behind A Fifth Force So as we've just outlined, these first four
fundamental forces are a key part in the understanding of our universe, mainly in that they are key
to the universe functioning.
They're a part of a "model" of sorts that is used to explain everything in the universe
at large.
However, as is almost always the case when it comes to the grander and more broad forms
of science, some errors started to be found.
Not that the four fundamental forces were wrong, but rather, that there was something
missing from the "model" that was being used.
For example, by the admission of those who made the "model", Gravity isn't a part of
it, which you would think would make it wrong given the fact that it's a fundamental force.
And then, there's the concept of fusion with these fundamental forces.
Some of it works, like mixing the weak force or the strong force with the electromagnetic
force.
Yet, none of them combine with gravity, nor do the fusions work in combination with one
another like many had previously speculated.
So with all of these inconsistencies and such, people started to wonder, "Are we missing
something?"
And the search for a fifth force began.
And no, before you ask, the fifth fundamental force is not called "The Force", though I
appreciate you trying.
There have been many theories as to what the fifth force is, and what it could be doing
to the universe, and yet, just about all of it has been disproven, or has been shown to
not be "grand enough" in order to fix the problems with the various models of the universe.
However, one particular theory about the universe may just reveal what the fifth fundamental
force is, and that theory...is Dark Matter.
7.
Dark Matter Scientists have a theory about something in
the universe that they are desperate to prove, this is the theory of Dark Matter and Dark
Energy.
This all started a long time ago when studies of stars at outer edges of the galaxy revealed
that they were moving faster than they should.
Faster than gravity should allow them to do.
What caused this burst of speed?
The answer was "Dark Matter".
Matter that is unseen yet has a pull on objects within the universe.
As for Dark Energy, this came by the realization that the expansion of the universe, as the
universe is constantly growing, is going much faster than should be allowed given the gravitational
pull of matter itself.
So what's accelerating it?
Dark Energy.
In fact, some physicists believe that 70% of the energy in the universe itself is comprised
of some form of Dark Energy.
While 85% of the known universe is said to be comprised of Dark Matter
Here's the problem, despite numerous very credible theories about why these two things
exist...scientists cannot definitively prove that they exist.
Dark Matter in particular is nearly impossible to capture, especially with our perceptions
of it.
For as Dark Matter, it doesn't interact with light in any form, so if you can't see it,
how can you catch it?
Though keeping it at the "theory" stage of life.
The Large Hadron Collider is said to be a stepping stone to getting Dark Matter, but
it's unclear if it will truly produce what they need to prove the theory.
Either way, this is one of the biggest mysteries of physics, and in some people's minds, it's
the key to the fifth fundament force.
Before we explain why that is, be sure to like the video and subscribe to the channel!
That way you don't miss all of our weekly videos.
6.
How Dark Matter Connects To The Fifth Force So how does a currently theoretically force
in the universe that can't be caught or proven seem to indicate that the Fifth Force (does
anyone else think that this would be a great name for a TV show?) exists?
Simple, because there are a lot of people who truly believe that Dark Matter is real,
and that it (along with Dark Energy) comprise a large part of our universe.
But, if that is the case, we have another issue.
Mainly, there is nothing on our table of contents if you will that could make up Dark Matter.
Because there is no form of matter that we know of and have identified that could do
the things that Dark Matter and Dark Energy do.
Let's just start with the obvious part of being invisible, and being able to not be
affected by light.
While some materials can do both in certain contexts, it's not a constant, and it wouldn't
explain how Dark Matter affects the gravity of the universe.
Which leads us to the theory of what may just be the fifth fundamental force.
It's not exactly a new kind of matter, but rather, a new kind of particle.
One that interacts and does things that we haven't seen happen before.
Scientists are referring to it as X17, and they have some notions as to how it could
be the thing they're looking for.
5.
X17 This isn't just a random theory though to
be clear, and it's not just something that was "thought up" by the notion of Dark Matter
and Dark Energy, there have been papers written about this potential new particle.
In fact, there was a study done about it after some experiments in 2016.
You see, a team of scientists decided to do an experiment in the hopes of finding "Dark
Photons", which they felt at the time could be what carries Dark Matter and Dark Energy.
As outlined in the earlier post about the two theoretical forces, a particle accelerator
was used, but the results of the experiment were not what they expected:
"The team closely watched the radioactive decay of beryllium-8, an unstable isotope.
When the particles from beryllium-8 decayed, the team observed unexpected light emissions:
The electrons and positrons from the unstable isotope tended to burst away from each other
at exactly 140 degrees.
This shouldn't have happened, according to the law of conservation of energy.
The results suggested that an unknown particle was created in the decay."
But what was that unknown particle?
They believe that it was X17.
But what exactly was it?
Well, to the best of their knowledge, they feel it was a Boson, which to them would allow
the fifth fundamental force to be real.
4.
What's A Boson Again?
Ok, I won't fault you for this one, Boson's in simple terms:
"Are particles in quantum mechanics that carry energy, and function as the "glue" that holds
matter together and controls the interactions between physical forces."
So basically, each of the fundamental forces is it own Boson in a way.
Here's another explanation, including how it relates to X17:
"[In] the Standard Model of Physics, each of the four fundamental forces has a boson
to go with it - the strong force has gluons, the electromagnetic force is carried by particles
of light, or photons, and the weak force is carried by W and Z bosons.
The new boson proposed by the UCI researchers is unlike others and as such may point to
a new force.
The new boson has the intriguing characteristic of interacting only with electrons and neutrons
at short distances, while electromagnetic forces normally act on protons and electrons."
Does that help explain it?
To wrap it up, this new kind of Boson would allow for many of the mysteries of the "model"
of the universe to be solved.
Because at present, we just don't know everything that's going on, and that's driving people
nuts.
3.
More Evidence Of The X17 Particle Now, as some have noted, the original study
published in 2016 about the new particle and the potential of the new fundamental force
was met with a lot of scrutiny, including the team itself:
"We introduced such a new particle, which nobody saw before, and [whose] existence could
not be understood by the widely accepted 'Standard Model' of particle physics, so it faced scrutiny,"
lead author of the study Attila Krasznahorkay noted.
But thankfully for those who like this theory, that wasn't the only evidence found.
For as the research continued, more clues came to light about what this new particle
could be.
Including its mass, which is 17 megaelectronvolts, which translates to...yep, you guessed it:
X17.
And this time, unlike in the particle accelerator test, it came from a more simple experiment,
the decaying of helium in its isotope form: "This feature is similar to the anomaly observed
in 8Be, and seems to be in agreement with the X17 boson decay scenario," the researchers
wrote in their paper.
"We are expecting more, independent experimental results to come for the X17 particle in the
coming years."
So there are multiple people who believe this to be true.
But, not unlike with Dark Matter and Dark Energy, we can't exactly prove it's real.
We have proof that a particle such as X17 could exist, and even MIGHT exist, but capturing
it in its definitive form to show off has proven...difficult.
2.
What It Would Mean To Find This Fifth Force So let's break it down, what would it mean
for the world, or even the universe, at large if we were to find this mysterious particle
that could be the fifth fundamental force?
Well, first off, it would help rewrite the laws of physics.
Which I'm pretty sure is on its 10th or 11th volume...hard to remember.
But on a serious note, this rewriting of physics would allow us to further understand the universe
as a larger concept.
Especially if X17, or whatever it turns out to possibly be, leads us to proving Dark Matter
and Dark Energy.
Because if those forces are found, and we're able to harness them, it could change everything
in regards to energy, expansion, physics, and more.
Especially if we're able to use them to our own devices.
Say...like make a faster engine to travel across the stars?
Plus, if we're able to find the fifth force, we may unlock more secrets of the universe,
including ones that we didn't know existed before.
The universe is a large place, and we still don't understand everything that's there.
This could change that.
Going back to Dark Energy and Dark Matter, if we're able to find them, or study the particles
enough to at least detect them, we'll be able to see just how right or wrong we were in
regards to how much they fill up our universe.
Either way, this would be huge for science in general.
1.
When Will We Find The Fifth Force?
That sadly is only something scientists can answer.
Because they know more or less what they're looking for, but how to get it...?
That's still eluding them.
That's not to say that they won't be able to figure it out, they're very clever these
scientists.
With more and more proof mounting of a fifth force, they're going to double their efforts
to proof its definitive existence.
And if they are able to do it, things will definitely be changing.
Thanks for watching everyone!
What do you think about this potential fifth fundamental force?
Do you understand everything that is going on that makes it technically possible?
Do you think we'll find the proof of the fifth force soon?
Let me know in the comments below, be sure to subscribe, and I'll see you next time on
the channel!