Scientists have for the first time determined the mass of W bosons, which are responsible for the nuclear processes that make the Sun shine. They have found them to have more mass than what was theorised.
After working on it for a decade, conducting careful analysis and scrutiny, physicists at the Fermilab Collider Detector (CDF) have come across a new observation, that, if confirmed could have a tectonic shift in the world of physics. They have found a fundamental particle to have more mass (weight) than what was initially thought.
This subatomic particle, known as the W boson, is responsible for a fundamental force at the center of atoms, and they exist for only a fraction of a second before they decay into other particles. These particles have been used to explain the workings of the universe, and a new observation of them having a different mass could have a major impact on the equations that govern the workings of our world.
Scientists have for the first time determined the mass of W bosons with a precision of 0.01 per cent — twice as precise as the previous best measurement. "It corresponds to measuring the weight of an 800-pound gorilla to 1.5 ounces," the collaboration said in a statement. The findings have been published in the journal Science.
They say that if confirmed, this measurement suggests the potential need for improvements to the Standard Model calculation or extensions to the model.
“The number of improvements and extra checking that went into our result is enormous. We took into account our improved understanding of our particle detector as well as advances in the theoretical and experimental understanding of the W boson’s interactions with other particles. When we finally unveiled the result, we found that it differed from the Standard Model prediction,” Ashutosh V. Kotwal of Duke University, who led this analysis and is one of the 400 scientists in the CDF collaboration said in a statement.
A GRAND COLLISION OVER A DECADE
Physicists at the US government’s Fermi National Accelerator Lab crashed particles together over 10 years and measured the mass of 4 million W bosons, a messenger particle of the weak nuclear force. W bosons are responsible for the nuclear processes that make the sun shine, and particles decay.
The data around W bosons were collected from 1985 to 2011. The measured value remained hidden from the analysers until the procedures were fully scrutinized. And when it finally showed up "it was a surprise.” According to Fermilab, the mass of a W boson is about 80 times the mass of a proton.
IS PHYSICS REALLY FLAWED?
The result is so full of surprises, that if confirmed by another experiment, it could present one of the biggest problems yet in the scientists’ detailed rulebook for the cosmos, called the standard model. The Standard model talks about 17 fundamental particles, the building blocks of matter, and how they interact.
While the results show a flaw in our understanding of the physics, scientists speculate that there may be an undiscovered particle that is interacting with the W boson that could explain the difference. They also speculate it could be the elusive dark matter that is playing a role or it could be a new physics, that remains to be fully understood.
“It’s now up to the theoretical physics community and other experiments to follow up on this and shed light on this mystery. If the difference between the experimental and expected value is due to some kind of new particle or subatomic interaction, which is one of the possibilities, there’s a good chance it’s something that could be discovered in future experiments,” CDF co-spokesperson David Toback said.
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