X17 particle

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The X17 particle is a hypothetical subatomic particle that was proposed by a team led by the Hungarian physicist Attila Krasznahorkay to explain unexpected measured values. It is described as an X boson with a mass of around 17  MeV / c 2 .

Discovery story

As early as the 1990s, scientists at the Institute for Nuclear Physics in Frankfurt am Main were looking for a "light neutral boson" and in doing so developed the technology that would later also be used for the X17 search. At that time, however, the scientists still assumed that the new particle should have 9 MeV / c 2 . The search was driven by the Dutch physicist Fokke de Boer, who firmly believed in the existence of the new particle. In 2000, after the end of the Frankfurt experiments, he convinced Attila Krasznahorkay to continue the search for the new particle at the Atomki Research Institute in Debrecen, Hungary. De Boer was controversial among colleagues because of his optimistic data analysis. After his death in 2010, Attila Krasznahorkay continued the search alone. In 2015, he and his team published information about the X17 particle, which according to the new measurements should have 17 MeV / c 2 . A year later the hypothesis was published that the particle could be an indication of a fifth force . In 2019 new phenomena were published that show further evidence for the existence of the particle.

criticism

After the publications, skepticism was expressed that the discovery team only published positive results and concealed unpleasant results. Possible measurement errors were suspected elsewhere. Overall, it is very difficult to detect the X17 particle, as it would only leave very weak traces in the microcosm and the evaluation of the measurement data is very error-prone.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Robert Gast (text) and Marc Grove (layout): The fifth force. In: Spektrum.de. Spectrum of Science, July 29, 2020, accessed August 6, 2020 .
  2. ^ FWN de Boer, R van Dantzig, J van Klinken, K Bethge, H Bokemeyer: Excess in nuclear pairs near 9 MeV / invariant mass . In: Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics . tape 23 , no. 11 , November 1, 1997, ISSN  0954-3899 , p. L85 – L96 , doi : 10.1088 / 0954-3899 / 23/11/001 ( iop.org [accessed August 6, 2020]).
  3. ↑ AJ Krasznahorkay, M. Csatlós, L. Csige, Z. Gácsi, J. Gulyás: Observation of Anomalous Internal Pair Creation in $ ^ 8 $ Be: A Possible Signature of a Light, Neutral Boson . In: Physical Review Letters . tape 116 , no. 4 , January 26, 2016, ISSN  0031-9007 , p. 042501 , doi : 10.1103 / PhysRevLett.116.042501 , arxiv : 1504.01527 [abs] .
  4. ↑ Jonathan L. Feng, Bartosz Fornal, Iftah Galon, Susan Gardner, Jordan Smolinsky: Protophobic Fifth-Force Interpretation of the Observed Anomaly in Be 8 Nuclear Transitions . In: Physical Review Letters . tape 117 , no. 7 , August 11, 2016, ISSN  0031-9007 , p. 071803 , doi : 10.1103 / PhysRevLett.117.071803 .
  5. ↑ AJ Krasznahorkay, M. Csatlos, L. Csige, J. Gulyas, M. Koszta: New evidence supporting the existence of the hypothetic X17 particle . In: arXiv: 1910.10459 [nucl-ex] . October 23, 2019, arxiv : 1910.10459 [abs] .
  6. ↑ Natalie Wolchover: New boson Claim Faces Scrutiny. In: Quantamagazine. Retrieved December 2, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Ethan Siegel: This Is Why The 'X17' Particle And A New, Fifth Force Probably Don't Exist. Accessed December 2, 2019 .