From Fuentitech, October 19, 2021: Physicists have long wondered if muons, electrons, and other leptons make a difference other than mass. The latest LHCb results suggest that the answer may be “yes” by revealing two minor anomalies that continue the strange pattern of “lost” muons shown in recent data from the LHCb. In April, the Muon g-2 experiment at Fermilab also found a discrepancy from the Standard Model but future results may also shed light on these differences.
Muon g-2
From The Naked Scientists, October 12, 2021: Scientists at Fermilab may have uncovered something in muons beyond our understanding-an interview with Fermilab’s Brendan Casey on Muon g-2 and the magnetic strength of muons, their strange behavior, and how they could change our understanding of the universe.
From Medill Reports, September 30, 2021: Researchers transported a gigantic electromagnetic ring from Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island to Fermilab near Chicago eight years ago in the search for a new building block of matter. While it wasn’t the secret spaceship bystanders thought it was, it did allow scientists to explore fundamental questions about our universe.
From Inverse, Sept. 28, 2021: Suspect number one at the center of the particle-filled mystery? The humble muon.
Scientists at CERN began studying the magnetism of muons in the 1950s, but in the 1990s this research moved stateside, first to Brookhaven National Laboratory in Long Island until 2001 and now to Fermilab.
From Scientific American, September 14, 2021: Fermilab theorist Marcela Carena writes about the ever changing behavior of muons and the first result of the Muon g-2 experiment that suggested muons were not acting as current theory prescribes in an article titled, “Weird muons may point to new particles and forces of nature,” posted in Scientific American.
Fermilab physicist and Muon g-2 co-spokesperson Chris Polly has won a Falling Walls Award in physical sciences, which honors researchers doing groundbreaking work in the observation and understanding of natural phenomena of the earth, atmosphere and space. Polly is being recognized for his contribution to the Muon g-2 collaboration. Its results earlier this year strengthened evidence of new physics beyond the Standard Model. He is also a finalist for Science Breakthrough of the Year 2021 in physical sciences.
Even experiments that aren’t looking for dark matter directly, such as Muon g-2, could give us hints about the mysterious substance that permeates our universe.
From Sciences et Avenir (France), August 6, 2021: Two recent physics experiments, Muon g-2 and the LHCb, have upset the whole physics of matter possibly finding new forces. Fermilab’s Muon g-2 experiment measured the muon’s magnetic moment confirming the Brookhaven result that revealed it didn’t match the theory.
From DOE.gov, August 2, 2021: The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced a plan to provide $100 million over the next four years for new research in high energy physics. Funding will support research and experiments that explore the frontiers of high energy physics. This includes Fermilab’s Muon g-2 experiment which aims to search for signs of physics beyond the standard model, scientists’ current best theory to describe the most basic building blocks of the universe.
From How Stuff Works, July 1, 2021: Fermilab’s Muon g-2 result announcement in April 2021 introduced the world to the muon. Although the particle was first discovered in the late 1930’s, the muon made international headlines confirming previous findings that the muon behaves in a way that contradicts the Standard Model of Particle Physics.