The hunt for X17: a Chinese quest for the fifth force in physics
- Researchers in Beijing are wondering whether experiments in Hungary could help unlock some of the mysteries of the universe
- But others are sceptical, citing the failure of other scientists to replicate the results
Qiao Congfeng is looking for a quiet place to look for a “fifth force”.
The physics professor at the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences is one of a group of researchers on the hunt for X17 but they need somewhere tranquil to do it.
“I just had a chat with people at the Beijing Spectrometer Experiment to see if we could detect it at their facility,” Qiao said.
“It might be possible, but the job would be very challenging because the background noise could be too high. We need a very quiet environment to catch the phenomenon.”
Qiao and his team are looking for a particle that could open up a new frontier in physics, taking science beyond the four known forces – gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear interactions – to a fifth.
It’s all Qiao and his colleagues have talked about since scientists at the Institute for Nuclear Research at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences caused a buzz in the science community earlier this month by publishing a paper about evidence they had found supporting the existence of this fifth force.