W boson seems to be about 1 part in 1000 heavier than it's supposed to be. Standard model might be due for revision

submitted by infocom6502 from greatgameindia.com

all 5 comments
sorted by:
top
newinsightfulfun

[–]infocom6502[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

The findings, which were published in the journal Science, could be linked to suggestions from previous Fermilab and Large Hadron Collider investigations on the Swiss-French border. These as-yet-unconfirmed findings also point to deviations from the Standard Model, presumably due to the presence of an as-yet-undiscovered fifth natural force.

There's a lot of boson scratching their heads at collider campuses these days.

[–]IkeConn 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Well shit. Do I have any of these bosons in my body? How would you even know you had bosons? Do you have bosons?

[–]Canbot 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

How does a new force explain the difference in readings?

[–]infocom6502[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

i wish I knew. The article says there was an earlier experiment/paper which also points to the standard model being off, and the authors speculated that it could point to another force.

This recent measurement is consistent with this earlier paper. So the it's a sign to take those author's suggestion seriously.

[–]Tiwaking 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

However, in the physics community, the joy is tempered with a strong note of caution. Although the Fermilab result is the most precise measurement of the W boson mass to date, it contradicts two of the next most precise readings from two other experiments, both of which are consistent with the Standard Model.

It would be nice if the W boson was a source for a new particle