2021年经济学人 第五种力或被发现,宇宙终极奥秘即将揭开（在线收听）

Life, the universe and everything

生命，宇宙和万物

Beauty spots

美丽的邂逅

Just possibly, a route to the much-sought "new physics" has opened

可能，一条通往人们渴望已久的“新物理学”的道路已经打开

The standard model of particle physics is one of the most powerful theories in science. It is, though, incomplete. It describes a suite of fundamental particles and the forces through which they interact, but it fails to include gravity and dark matter (mysterious stuff detectable at the moment only by its gravitational pull), and also cannot explain why there is more matter than antimatter in the universe.

粒子物理的标准模型是科学中最强大的理论之一，然而它是不完整的。它描述了一套基本粒子和它们相互作用的力，但并不包括引力和暗物质（目前只能通过引力探测到的神秘物质），也无法解释为什么宇宙中物质比反物质多。

For these reasons, physicists have spent decades searching for ways to extend it, or at least for results that may provide a means of doing so. And on March 23rd, at a meeting called the Moriond Electroweak Physics Conference, a team from Europe's particle-physics laboratory, CERN, in Geneva, reported that they might have some.

由于这些原因，物理学家们花了几十年的时间来寻找扩展它的方法，或者至少是寻找可能提供这样做的方法的结果。3月23日，在一场名为“默里昂电弱物理会议”的会议上，一个来自日内瓦欧洲粒子物理实验室CERN的团队报告说，他们可能有办法。

The details are arcane. But they concern particles called beauty quarks which, themselves, form part of other particles called B-mesons. When beauty quarks decay, the daughter particles produced sometimes include a pair of what are known as charged leptons. These may be an electron and its antimatter equivalent, a positron, or two heavier leptons, a muon and an antimuon. The Standard Model predicts equal numbers of such pairs. But an analysis of results from the LHCB experiment (pictured), a purpose-built detector fitted to CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC), suggests electron-positron pairs are more abundant than muon pairs.

细节晦涩难懂。但他们关注的是一种叫做“美夸克”的粒子，这种粒子本身是另一种叫做“B-介子”的粒子的一部分。当美夸克衰变时，产生的子粒子有时包含一对所谓的带电轻子。它们可能是一个电子和它的反物质等价物，一个正电子，或者两个更重的轻子，一个介子和一个反介子。标准模型预测这类配对的数量相等。但是对LHCB(欧洲核子研究中心的大型强子对撞机(LHC)专用探测器)实验结果的分析表明，电子-正电子的数量对比介子对更多。

If confirmed, this could be the much sought crack into which researchers can insert a metaphorical crowbar to prise the Standard Model open and reveal what it is hiding—perhaps a fifth force of nature to go alongside gravity, electro-magnetism and the strong and weak nuclear forces.

如果得到证实，这可能是研究人员可以插入一根隐喻的撬棍撬开标准模型并揭示其隐藏之处的一个寻求已久的突破点——可能是除重力、电磁力和强、弱核力之外的自然界第五种力。

In public, those involved are cautious. Calculations suggest there is one chance in 1,000 the result is a fluke. In many fields of science that would be enough to declare victory and go home, but particle physicists are choosier. They require one chance in 3.5m. Privately, however, things are different. As Mitesh Patel of Imperial College, London, who is one of the team members, put it, "we were actually shaking when we first looked at the results, we were that excited. Our hearts did beat a bit faster."

在公共场合，参与者都很谨慎。计算表明，有一千分之一的可能性这个结果只是侥幸。在许多科学领域，这足以宣告胜利然后回家，但粒子物理学家更挑剔。他们需要350万分之一的机会。然而，私底下情况就不同了。伦敦帝国理工学院(Imperial College, London)的米泰什·帕特尔是该团队的成员之一，他说：“当我们第一次看到结果时，我们真的在发抖，我们非常兴奋。”我们的心跳确实加快了一点。”