By Kaelan Deese
A subatomic particle known as a muon is disobeying the basic laws of physics, according to preliminary results from two separate experiments debuted on Wednesday.
The Muon g-2 experiment at the Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory showed that fundamental particles called muons are behaving in a way that is not predicted by the physicist’s best theory, known as the Standard Model of particle physics, the Associated Press reported.
A team of over 200 researchers suggested that the particles are not doing what is expected of them when they are spun around in two different long-term experiments conducted in the United States and Europe, hinting at a potential overhaul of the rulebook that physicists have long used to understand the universe at the subatomic level.
Muons, which are 200 times as massive as their cousin, the electron, are electrically charged particles with a property called spin, behaving as if they have internal magnets.
The Standard Model predicts the anomalous magnetic moment very precisely. If the quantum foam contains additional forces or particles not known to the Standard Model, it would tweak the muon g-factor even more.
“This quantity we measure reflects the interactions of the muon with everything else in the universe. But when the theorists calculate the same quantity, using all of the known forces and particles in the Standard Model, we don’t get the same answer,” said Renee Fatemi, a physicist at the University of Kentucky and the simulations manager for the Muon g-2 experiment. “This is strong evidence that the muon is sensitive to something that is not in our best theory.”
The discovery is said potentially to lead to a breakthrough in the understanding of the universe as substantial as the 2012 discovery of the Higgs boson, a particle that imbues other particles with mass, according to the New York Times.
When muons circulate within the muon g-2 magnet, they interact with a quantum foam of subatomic particles shifting in and out of existence. Interactions with these temporary particles affect the g-factor, causing muons’ precession to gain or lose speed slightly.
Saskia Charity, a scientist at Fermilab, said that the “g-factor causes the muon spin to wobble when you put it inside a magnetic field.”
“I like to think about it a bit like when you put too many pieces of paper behind a fridge magnet, you add an extra one in there, it doesn’t feel the force as much and will fall off your fridge,” she said.
“Today is an extraordinary day, long awaited not only by us but by the whole international physics community,” said Graziano Venanzoni, a spokesman for the Muon g-2 experiment and a physicist at the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics. “A large amount of credit goes to our young researchers who, with their talent, ideas, and enthusiasm, have allowed us to achieve this incredible result.”
