muons

How are cosmology and particle physics connected? Observing the motions of stars and galaxies can reveal the influence of as-yet-undiscovered particles, while studying fundamental particles in the lab can tell us about the birth and evolution of the cosmos.

Top 7 innovation stories of 2023 — Interesting Engineering

Interesting Engineering lists the top seven amazing innovations that pushed the boundaries of science and technology in 2023. Included in this line up is the latest announcement from the Muon g-2 collaboration with more evidence of a new force of nature that could revolutionize our understanding of the universe.

From University of Virginia Today, March 7, 2023: University of Virginia physicists shipped the last truckload of five large, specialized panels that contain the detector that will form the shell of the international Muon-to-electron Conversion Experiment, or Mu2e experiment. UVA professors, technicians, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students and undergrads have worked on a total of 83 detector modules, each weighing as much as 2,000 pounds, totaling about 160,000 pounds of materials.

From Popular Science, Feb. 3, 2023: Recently, researchers created a full 3D muon image of a nuclear reactor the size of a large building which provides a safer way of inspecting old reactors or checking on nuclear waste. Scientists can collect muons to paint images of objects as if they were X-rays. Fermilab’s Alan Bross and a team of researchers are working to use this same technology to image the inside of the Great Pyramid of Giza.

From MSN (Spain), May 26, 2022: A series of precise measurements of well-known ordinary particles and processes have threatened to shake our understanding of physics from the Muon g-2 and W boson Fermilab announcements . Now the LHC is preparing to operate at a higher energy level and intensity than ever before, there is a chance that new particles are produced through even rarer processes or are hidden under backgrounds that we have not yet unearthed.