In 2020, a group of MIT researchers detected an anomaly in the nuclei of ytterbium atoms.
They said that the nuclei’s strange behavior might be indicative of a “dark force” caused by a currently-undiscovered mystery particle that might make up dark matter.
In 2020, the anomaly only had a significance of 3 sigma. But now, another group has confirmed it at a whopping 23 sigma!
What does that mean for physics?
Let’s find out.