Sixth force

1988/04/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Fisika

Physicists have found a new force in nature, the sixth. This work confirms that gravity contains two non-Newtonian components, one attractive and one repellent.

Researchers at the U.S. Geophysics Laboratory in Massachusetts have discovered a new one that reinforces the force of gravity. This new force acts at a distance of up to 200 meters. Recently another physicist, Frank Stacey, has found a force that weakens gravity a few meters away.

At first glance these two results seem contradictory. But Stacey believes these two forces can live together smoothly.

The American team has measured the acceleration of gravity in a 600 m television tower at different heights. They discover a force that reinforces the attractiveness of gravity in five of its ten millilions. After considering all possible effects (tides, water level changes and the gravitational level of tower and air attractions), the consolidation continued. This consolidation was ten times greater than the expected error in the measure.

The Americans did not want to find forces of attraction, but quite the opposite.

Science admits four main forces: gravity, electromagnetic, weak nuclear force and strong nuclear force. The first two work at great distances and the other at interatomic distances.

Some versions of modern gravitational quantum theories regard as particles the two new components of gravity, the fifth and sixth forces. These particles could be photons related to electronic force. These hypothetical particles are gravifoton and graviescalar respectively. Its mass would be very small; from 110 to ⁹ electrons. The mass of the proton, for example, is 938 million electronic. Gravifoton and graviescalar would be the lightest particles.

All this does not affect the law of gravity we know (to calculate the motion of planets and stars), but in the case of physicists seeking a unified physics theory.