科學家們可能發(fā)現(xiàn)了第五種自然力

科學家們可能發(fā)現(xiàn)了第五種自然力

Scientists say they may have found a fifth force of nature and moved a step closer to understanding the workings of the universe.

科學家們表示，他們可能已經(jīng)發(fā)現(xiàn)了第五種自然力，并向了解宇宙運行機制又邁進了一步。

Researchers at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences say they have detected a new particle behaving in ways that cannot be explained using current models.

匈牙利科學院的研究人員表示，他們發(fā)現(xiàn)了一種新的粒子，其行為方式無法用當前的模型來解釋。

The team achieved the results by watching the way in which an excited helium atom emitted light as it decayed.

研究小組通過觀察一個被激發(fā)的氦原子在衰變過程中發(fā)光的方式，得出了這一結果。

An atom is said to be “excited” if any of its electrons are not orbiting in their lowest-possible energy level.

如果一個原子的任何一個電子不在其可能的最低能級軌道上運行，那么這個原子就被稱為“激發(fā)的”。

When an electron returns to its lowest orbital, or “decays”, some of its energy is released in the form of smaller particles or photons of light.

當一個電子回到它的最低軌道或“衰變”時，它的一些能量以更小的粒子或光子的形式釋放出來。

Scientists can measure the angles at which those particles or photons are emitted and use the data to study the forces governing the process.

科學家可以測量這些粒子或光子發(fā)射的角度，并利用這些數(shù)據(jù)來研究控制這一過程的力量。

The Hungarian researchers observed a particle being emitted at an angle – 115 degrees – not explained by the so-called Standard Model of particle physics.

匈牙利的研究人員觀察到一種粒子以115度的角度發(fā)射，這種角度無法用所謂的粒子物理標準模型來解釋。

They believe they have discovered a new particle, dubbed X17 because it has a mass of 17 megaelectronvolts and say it could be indicative of a fifth force at work in the universe.

他們相信他們已經(jīng)發(fā)現(xiàn)了一種新的粒子，被命名為X17，因為它的質量為17兆電子伏特，并表示這可能是宇宙中第五種力在起作用的跡象。

There are four fundamental forces – gravity, electromagnetism, the weak nuclear force and the strong force – currently known to exist.

目前已知存在四種基本力——重力、電磁力、弱核力和強核力。

“No-brainer Nobel prize”

.“顯而易見的諾貝爾獎”

The study’s lead scientist, Attila Krasznahorkay, told CNN: “X17 could be a particle, which connects our visible world with the dark matter.”

該研究的首席科學家Attila Krasznahorkay告訴CNN:“X17可能是一種粒子，它將我們的可見世界與暗物質聯(lián)系起來。”

Dark matter is a form of matter thought to account for about 85 percent of all the matter in the universe but whose existence has only been inferred from scientific observations.

暗物質是一種物質形式，被認為占宇宙中所有物質的85%，但其存在只能從科學觀察中推斷出來。

Krasznahorkay’s team’s result comes three years after they published a similar finding from an experiment conducted with another type of atom named beryllium-8.

三年前，Krasznahorkay的團隊發(fā)表了一項類似的發(fā)現(xiàn)，該發(fā)現(xiàn)來自于對另一種名為鈹-8的原子的實驗。

Fellow scientists assumed the results must be a mistake, but have been unable to find any mistakes in the team’s work or in the way the experiment was conducted.

其他科學家認為這個結果一定是錯誤的，但他們一直未能在團隊的工作或實驗的進行方式中發(fā)現(xiàn)任何錯誤。

Geraint Lewis, a professor of astrophysics at the University of Sydney told ABC News: “What it’s telling us if it is correct is that there is something going on in the way that one particle talks to another particle that we haven’t got inside our mathematics at the moment.”

悉尼大學(University of Sydney)天體物理學教授吉蘭特·劉易斯(Geraint Lewis)告訴美國廣播公司新聞網(wǎng)(ABC News):“如果它是正確的，它告訴我們的是，一個粒子與另一個粒子之間的對話方式正在發(fā)生一些變化，而我們目前的數(shù)學中還沒有這些變化。”

Jonathan Feng, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Irvine, told CNN that, if the observations are correct, the chances they are the result of something other than particle X17 and a fifth force, are one in a trillion.

加州大學歐文分校(University of California, Irvine)的物理學和天文學教授喬納森·馮(Jonathan Feng)告訴CNN，如果觀測結果是正確的，那么它們不是由X17粒子和第五力造成的可能性是萬億分之一。

He added that if any group could repeat the results with a third atom, it “would blow the cover off this thing”.

他補充說，如果任何一個小組可以用第三個原子重復這個結果，“將會揭開這一神秘面紗”。

“This would be a no-brainer Nobel Prize,” he said.

“這將是一個毋庸置疑的諾貝爾獎。”他說。