The Rise and Fall of the Fifth Force : Discovery, Pursuit, and Justification in Modern Physics

This book provides the reader with a detailed and captivating account of the story where, for the first time, physicists ventured into proposing a new force of nature beyond the four known ones - the electromagnetic, weak and strong forces, and gravitation - based entirely on the reanalysis of existing experimental data. Back in 1986, Ephraim Fischbach, Sam Aronson, Carrick Talmadge and their collaborators proposed a modification of Newton's Law of universal gravitation. Underlying this proposal were three tantalizing pieces of evidence: 1) an energy dependence of the CP (particle-antiparticle and reflection symmetry) parameters, 2) differences between the measurements of G, the universal gravitational constant, in laboratories and in mineshafts, and 3) a reanalysis of the Eötvos experiment, which had previously been used to show that the gravitational mass of an object and its inertia mass were equal to approximately one part in a billion. The reanalysis revealed that, contrary to Galileo's position, the force of gravity was in fact very slightly different for different substances. The resulting Fifth Force hypothesis included this composition dependence and also added a small distance dependence to the inverse-square gravitational force. Over the next four years numerous experiments were performed to test the hypothesis. By 1990 there was overwhelming evidence that the Fifth Force, as initially proposed, did not exist. This book discusses how the Fifth Force hypothesis came to be proposed and how it went on to become a showcase of discovery, pursuit and justification in modern physics, prior to its demise. In this new and significantly expanded edition, the material from the first edition is complemented by two essays, one containing Fischbach's personal reminiscences of the proposal, and a second on the ongoing history and impact of the Fifth Force hypothesis from 1990 to the present. Preface to the Second Edition 6 Preface to the First Edition 8 Acknowledgments 11 References 11 Contents 12 Part I The Rise and Fall of the Fifth Force 14 1 The Rise ... 15 1.1 K Mesons and CP Violation 15 1.2 Modifications of Newtonian Gravity 20 1.3 The Fifth Force 24 References 30 2 ... and Fall 32 2.1 The Immediate Reaction 32 2.2 An Electronic Interlude 41 2.3 Is It Rising or Falling? 51 2.4 The Force Is Falling 77 2.5 The Force Is Not With Us 87 2.6 Some Reasons Why 90 2.7 Epilogue 94 References 97 3 Discussion 104 References 120 4 Conclusion 121 References 122 Part II Additional Material 123 5 The Fifth Force Since 1991 124 5.1 The 1990s 125 5.2 The Twenty-First Century 141 5.3 Discussion 150 References 152 6 The Fifth Force: A Personal History, by Ephraim Fischbach 154 6.1 Introduction 154 6.1.1 Brief History 156 6.1.2 The COW Experiment and Its Impact 159 6.1.3 Stony Brook Sabbatical (1978–1979) 162 6.2 Reanalysis of the EPF Experiment 168 6.2.1 The Review of Gibbons and Whiting 168 6.2.2 Description of the EPF Experiment 169 6.2.3 Evaluation of B/μ for the EPF Samples 170 6.2.3.1 The Copper Sulfate Datum 171 6.2.3.2 Other EPF Samples 173 6.2.3.3 The Ag–Fe–SO4 Datum 173 6.2.4 Translation of the EPF Paper 174 6.2.5 The Refereeing Process 177 6.2.6 An Alternative Explanation 180 6.3 Immediate Aftermath of Publication 183 6.3.1 Interaction with Richard Feynman 184 6.3.2 The Talk at Stanford 187 6.3.3 Meeting with T.D. Lee 188 6.3.4 Some Wrong Papers 189 6.3.5 Shortcomings of Our PRL Paper 190 6.3.6 Experimental Signals for Hyperphotons 193 6.3.7 Visit to Hungary 195 6.3.8 The Air Force Geophysics Laboratory TowerExperiments 196 6.3.9 An Electromagnetic Fifth Force? 200 6.4 Reflections 201 6.4.1 The Moriond Conferences 201 6.4.2 Some Amusing Moments 204 6.4.3 Fifth Force Stories: Journals vs. Magazines 206 6.4.4 John Maddox and Nature 208 6.5 My 1985–1986 Sabbatical at the Universityof Washington 209 6.6 Short-Distance Searches for a Fifth Force 210 6.7 Our Book: ``The Search for Non-Newtonian Gravity'' 212 6.8 Epilogue 213 Appendix 1 Fifth Force Phenomenology 217 Appendix 2 Phenomenology of the Neutral Kaon System 220 Appendix 3 Dicke Correspondence 225 Appendix 4 Referee's Reports on Our PRL 231 Appendix 5 Feynman Correspondence 234 5.1 Los Angeles Times Editorial 234 5.2 Feynman's Letter to the Los Angeles Times 235 5.3 Exchange with Feynman 236 Appendix 6 Boynton Spoof 241 References 242 Further Reading 249 Index 250 This book provides the reader with a detailed and captivating account of the story where, for the first time, physicists ventured into proposing a new force of nature beyond the four known ones - the electromagnetic, weak and strong forces, and gravitation - based entirely on the reanalysis of existing experimental data. Back in 1986, Ephraim Fischbach, Sam Aronson, Carrick Talmadge and their collaborators proposed a modification of Newton's Law of universal gravitation. Underlying this proposal were three tantalizing pieces of evidence: 1) an energy dependence of the CP (particle-antiparticle and reflection symmetry) parameters, 2) differences between the measurements of G, the universal gravitational constant, in laboratories and in mineshafts, and 3) a reanalysis of the Eötvos experiment, which had previously been used to show that the gravitational mass of an object and its inertia mass were equal to approximately one part in a billion. The reanalysis revealed that, contrary to Galileo's position, the force of gravity was in fact very slightly different for different substances. The resulting Fifth Force hypothesis included this composition dependence and also added a small distance dependence to the inverse-square gravitational force. Over the next four years numerous experiments were performed to test the hypothesis. By 1990 there was overwhelming evidence that the Fifth Force, as initially proposed, did not exist. This book discusses how the Fifth Force hypothesis came to be proposed and how it went on to become a showcase of discovery, pursuit and justification in modern physics, prior to its demise. In this new and significantly expanded edition, the material from the first edition is complemented by two essays, one containing Fischbach's personal reminiscences of the proposal, and a second on the ongoing history and impact of the Fifth Force hypothesis from 1990 to the present. < Front Matter....Pages i-xii Front Matter....Pages 1-1 The Rise ... ....Pages 3-19 ... and Fall....Pages 21-92 Discussion....Pages 93-109 Conclusion....Pages 111-112 Front Matter....Pages 113-113 The Fifth Force Since 1991....Pages 115-144 The Fifth Force: A Personal History, by Ephraim Fischbach....Pages 145-239 Back Matter....Pages 241-249