A laboratory experiment in Hungary has spotted an anomaly in radioactive decay that could be the signature of a previously unknown fifth fundamental force of nature, physicists say—if the finding holds up. Hungarian physicist reported their surprising result in 2015 on the arXiv preprint server, and this January in the journal Physical Review Letters. But the report – which posited the existence of a new, light boson only 34 times heavier than the electron—was largely overlooked. Then, on April 25, a group of US theoretical physicists brought the finding to wider attention by publishing its own analysis of the result on arXiv. The theorists showed that the data didn’t conflict with any previous experiments—and concluded that it could be evidence for a fifth fundamental force. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/has-a-hungarian-physics-lab-found-a-fifth-force-of-nature/ Original report (Hungarian physicists): https://arxiv.org/abs/1504.01527 Reviewed report (US physicist): http://arxiv.org/abs/1604.07411
Hmm. Call me prejudiced, but I feel there's a bit of flaky science still floating around in some former East Bloc countries. My bet is this goes nowhere.
Physicists confirm possible discovery of fifth force of nature Recent findings indicating the possible discovery of a previously unknown subatomic particle may be evidence of a fifth fundamental force of nature, according to a paper by theoretical physicists at the University of California, Irvine. Authors claim the finding is revolutionary. For decades, we've known of four fundamental forces: gravitation, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces. If confirmed by further experiments, this discovery of a possible fifth force would completely change our understanding of the universe, with consequences for the unification of forces and dark matter. The UCI researchers came upon a mid-2015 study by experimental nuclear physicists at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences who were searching for "dark photons," particles that would signify unseen dark matter, which physicists say makes up about 85 percent of the universe's mass. The Hungarians' work uncovered a radioactive decay anomaly that points to the existence of a light particle just 30 times heavier than an electron. The UCI group studied the Hungarian researchers' data as well as all other previous experiments in this area and showed that the evidence strongly disfavors both matter particles and dark photons. They proposed a new theory, however, that synthesizes all existing data and determined that the discovery could indicate a fifth fundamental force. The UCI work demonstrates that instead of being a dark photon, the particle may be a "protophobic X boson." While the normal electric force acts on electrons and protons, this newfound boson interacts only with electrons and neutrons - and at an extremely limited range. http://phys.org/news/2016-08-physicists-discovery-nature.html Paper: http://arxiv.org/abs/1608.03591
The article you were really looking for is this: https://news.uci.edu/research/uci-physicists-confirm-possible-discovery-of-fifth-force-of-nature/ or for the peer-reviewed purists among us, this: http://www.nature.com/news/has-a-hungarian-physics-lab-found-a-fifth-force-of-nature-1.19957 The issue seems to be that the decomposition of all the forces binding atomic structure by the Standard Model may not yet render a complete picture. But we've all known that since July 4, 2012. The fifth force balance is both sufficiently dynamic and finessed, it is a distinct possibility. A simple hydrogen atom (without neutrons) would not require the fifth force to bind it together, and stationary electrons don't appear to exist at all in nature. Perhaps a fifth force explains why this is so. And perhaps drinking DDW (deuterium depleted water, a craze also started in Hungary) improves scientist's brain function by more than just a little.
