Standard Model

For the Muon g-2 experiment, researchers create billions of muons to study their surprising properties.

From Gizmodo, April 7, 2022: A collaboration of 400 researchers have precisely measured the mass of the W boson and to their surprise found that the boson is more massive than predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics. All the data was collected from experiments at the four-story-tall, 4,500-ton Collider Detector (CDF-II for short) at Fermilab’s Tevatron accelerator.

Scientists of the Collider Detector at Fermilab collaboration have achieved the most precise measurement to date of the mass of the W boson, one of nature’s force-carrying particles. The measured value shows tension with the value expected based on the Standard Model of particle physics.

The Standard Model is one of the most well-tested theories in particle physics. But scientists are searching for new physics beyond it.

From The Hamden Journal, January 16, 2022: With the Standard Model explaining the fundamental physics of how the universe works, experimental physicists are constantly probing for cracks in the model’s foundations. So far, it has remained the model of fundamental physics despite many experiments in 2021 that probed the Standard Model 2021 like Muon g-2.

Uncertainty, entanglement, spooky action: On the quantum scale, the universe doesn’t work the way you might expect.

From Business AM (Belgium), January 1, 2022: In 2021, physicists around the world conducted some interesting experiments examining the Standard Model and ways it can’t explain every mystery of the universe. Last April, members of the Muon g-2 experiment at Fermilab announced their first measurement of the muon’s magnetic moment. This experiment was important was because the measurement did not perfectly match the Standard Model’s prediction of the magnetic moment.

From The Conversation, December 21, 2021: Aaron McGowan, Principal Lecturer in Physics and Astronomy at the Rochester Institute of Technology explores research in 2021 in which physicists around the world ran a number of experiments that probed the Standard Model. From Higgs Boson, to Muon g-2 and the restart of the LHC at CERN, McGowan highlights some of the ways the Standard Model fails to explain every mystery of the universe.

From Science News, December 21,2021: Science News has compiled discoveries in 2021 dared the world to consider grand possibilities in physics, space and the origins of life. Fermilab’s “Misbehaving muons” is among the line-up for 2021.

From Discover Magazine, December 19, 2021: In April, an international collaboration of more than 200 scientists, led by Fermilab reported findings that may open a door to physics that transcends the Standard Model. Muon g-2’s magnetic moment goes beyond the Standard Model.