Recent results from the CDF collaboration have found a 3.2 sigma deviation from the predictions of the Standard Model in the lepton + missing energy + di-jet channel. With Joachim Kopp and Ethan Neil of Fermilab’s Theoretical Physics group, Matthew Buckley and Dan Hooper of the Theoretical Astrophysics Group have proposed that this anomaly is best explained by a new massive Z’ gauge boson coupling primarily to quarks. Such a Z’ would be a signal of a hitherto unknown new force of nature. The required interactions of this new Z’ to quarks lead to the intriguing possibility that it could also be related to the light dark matter signals reported by CoGeNT and DAMA/Libra.
– Matt Buckley