
Physicists confirm possible discovery of fifth force of nature - mr_overalls
http://phys.org/news/2016-08-physicists-discovery-nature.html
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bmer
Relevant: [https://www.quantamagazine.org/20160607-new-boson-claim-
face...](https://www.quantamagazine.org/20160607-new-boson-claim-faces-
scrutiny/)

Basically, take this claim with a huge dose of salt. For general physics
related news, you can't go wrong with Peter Woit's blog, and the other blog
recommendations there:
[http://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpress/](http://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpress/)

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x1798DE
Weren't electromagnetism and the weak force unified at some point? I thought
those were two aspects of the same force, so this would be a _fourth_
fundamental force, not a fifth.

Am I off base here?

~~~
MrBingley
You are correct. At high temperatures, electromagnetism and the weak force
merge into the electroweak force. However, these temperatures only existed at
the very, very early stages of the universe. As temperatures fell, the two
forces split apart into the (rather different) ones we see today, so it is
habitual to refer to them as different forces, even though strictly speaking
they are different manifestations of one underlying force.

