Observation of Anomalous Internal Pair Creation in ^{8}Be: A Possible Indication of a Light, Neutral Boson

Phys Rev Lett. 2016 Jan 29;116(4):042501. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.042501. Epub 2016 Jan 26.

Abstract

Electron-positron angular correlations were measured for the isovector magnetic dipole 17.6 MeV (J^{π}=1^{+}, T=1) state→ground state (J^{π}=0^{+}, T=0) and the isoscalar magnetic dipole 18.15 MeV (J^{π}=1^{+}, T=0) state→ground state transitions in ^{8}Be. Significant enhancement relative to the internal pair creation was observed at large angles in the angular correlation for the isoscalar transition with a confidence level of >5σ. This observation could possibly be due to nuclear reaction interference effects or might indicate that, in an intermediate step, a neutral isoscalar particle with a mass of 16.70±0.35(stat)±0.5(syst) MeV/c^{2} and J^{π}=1^{+} was created.