From the Associated Press, April 7, 2021: Fermilab announced results Wednesday of 8.2 billion races along a track that have physicists astir: The muons’ magnetic fields don’t seem to be what the Standard Model says they should be.
Muon g-2
From The New York Times, April 7, 2021: A collaboration of scientists led by Fermilab announced mounting evidence that a tiny subatomic particle seems to be disobeying the known laws of physics.
The first results from the Muon g-2 experiment hosted at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory show fundamental particles called muons behaving in a way not predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics. These results confirm an earlier experiment of the same name performed at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Combined, the two results show strong evidence that our best theoretical model of the subatomic world is incomplete. One potential explanation would be the existence of undiscovered particles or forces.
From China Science News, Yunnan.cn (China), April 1, 2021: The Muon g-2 experiment conducted at the Fermilab will soon announce the results after 20 years of waiting.
From Nature, March 30, 2021: The long-awaited Muon g-2 experiment results will be revealed in next week’s announcement that could reveal the existence of new elementary particles and upend fundamental physics.
A super-precise experiment at Fermilab is carefully analyzing every detail of the muon’s magnetic moment. The Fermilab Muon g-2 collaboration has announced it will present its first result at 10 a.m. CDT on April 7.
From Scientific American, March 25, 2021: Physicists have long wondered if muons, electrons and other leptons possess differences besides their mass; the latest LHCb result; Fermilab and the upcoming results of Muon g-2 test the standard model.
From Science, Jan. 27, 2021: Physicists await the Muon g-2 experiment’s results, which could come as early as this spring, to see whether they confirm that muons are slightly more magnetic than theory predicts. If so, it will signal new physics. Fermilab scientists discuss the experiment, as well as the secrecy required to blind themselves from affecting the results.
From Scientific American, Dec. 16, 2020: Researchers have made the most precise measurement of one of the fundamental constants, called the fine-structure constant. Now all eyes are on Fermilab, where the first results of the Muon g-2 experiment are expected to provide the most precise experimental measurement of the muon’s magnetic moment. Alex Keshavarzi, scientist on the Muon g-2 experiment, weighs in on the significance of the measurement.
More than 3,500 researchers from around the world collaborate with Fermilab to develop state-of-the-art technologies and solve the mysteries of matter, energy, space and time. Here is a look at 10 ways Fermilab advanced science and technology in 2020.