Researchers are occasionally asked if they carry out new experiments in the lab or if they carry out repeats of earlier studies that produced specific results.
While the majority of scientists work on the former,
scientific progress also depends on working on the latter and confirming
whether our presumptions about the universe hold up in the face of new
information.
When scientists at the National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST) examined the composition and properties of the well-researched
silicon in fresh experiments, the results shed light on a likely site for the
discovery of the 'fifth force.' A news release claims that this could improve
our understanding of how nature functions.
Put simply, one dimension of time—past-future—and three
dimensions of space—north-south, east-west, and up-down—are all we need to make
sense of the world. However, as Albert Einstein suggested in his theory of
gravity, mass distorts the dimensions of space-time.
Oskar Klein and Theodor Kaluza proposed the five-dimensional
hypothesis to explain the forces of nature in addition to gravity, the only
known electromagnetic force in the 1920s, according to the BBC's Science Focus.
The Standard Model, which describes most but not all natural
events, was formed by combining electromagnetic forces with Klein and Kaluza's
notion, which gained momentum with the discovery of strong and weak nuclear
forces.
The idea of an enormous fifth dimension reappears, which
might also explain the existence of dark matter, as physicists look to the
String Theory to explain why gravity is so weak.
Researchers at NIST blasted silicon with neutrons to better
understand its crystalline structure. They then evaluated the intensity,
angles, and intensities of these particles to draw conclusions about the
structure.
Standing waves are created by neutrons as they pass through
the crystalline structure, both on top of and between atom rows or sheets. The
pendellösung oscillations that these waves produce when they collide provide
information on the forces that the neutrons experience inside the structure.
The carrier particles that transmit each force have a range
that is inversely proportionate to their mass.
Because of this, a massless particle like a photon has an
infinite range, and vice versa. One can restrict a force's power by limiting
the range it can function throughout. Recent experiments have limited the
hypothetical fifth force's strength on a length scale between 0.02 and 10
nanometers, providing a range to look for the fifth dimension where this force
acts.
If this field of study continues, the fifth dimension may
soon be discovered, forcing physics instructors and students to grapple with an
abstract concept for the first time in an educational setting.
Reference(s): BBC Focus, Research paper