The Permilab Labs in the United States announced on Tuesday that the muon’s magnetic moment does not match theoretical calculations. The experiment conducted in Illinois confirms the anomaly that was discovered several years ago but for the first time it stands at a confirmed score of 4.25 sigma (statistical error approaching 1: 100,000) Is this evidence of a new fundamental force in nature?

See also: The moment of truth has come – will we announce new physics this week?

It’s been a decade since the last breakthrough in particle physics and there’s still something new under the sun. On the one hand, the discoveries fit remarkably well into the Standard Model, and on the other hand, questions are collected. The unique condition of the Permilev Laboratories in the United States differs in the scientific landscape because this time, many years later, important evidence of new physics has been revealed. Experimental results Last Tuesday, the prestigious journal Physical Review Letters was published and is already causing embarrassment and excitement among physicists around the world. The experiment known as g-2 measured the parameter g of the muon’s magnetic moment, which is the parameter responsible for the degree of rotation of the particle’s internal magnet.

Deviation between experiment results and theoretical calculations

Find is important Because it is achieved with a high accuracy of 4.25 sigma (a probability of one in a hundred thousand that this is a statistical error) from the discrepancy between the results of the experiment and theoretical calculations published in the past. Physicists go to great lengths to observe the internal rotation of particles in nature to the point of obsession. This is because it is a physical quantity that can be measured with great sensitivity and because it contains a lot of information about quantum void in the universe. When physicists refer to “emptiness,” they are not referring to an absolute vacuum, but an environment without particles at all. The void may appear completely empty but it is filled with quantum fields. According to the principle of uncertainty in these fields, particles form spontaneously and disappear at that moment. Although many call these particles “virtual particles”, their effect is measurable because they interact with the muon (or any other charged particle) and change the size of the g factor.

Every particle in nature has a field to describe, so every particle can suddenly appear in a vacuum and interact with the particles in its environment, of course according to the Standard Model. The most well-known magnetic moments that have been measured belong to the electron. The theoretical precision is perfect and has fourteen digits after the decimal point. Any experiment that measures the electron’s magnetic moment will fully agree with the theory and confirm the quantum nature of the universe. At the same time, we know that the Standard Model is incomplete. It does not explain dark energy and matter, it does not explain the oscillations of neutrino particles, nor does it describe gravity at all. For this reason, physicists have deemed it appropriate to examine the magnetic moment of the muon because it responds with a probability and density greater than an electron (40,000 times). If the standard model is incomplete, it is more likely that the anomaly is detected by the muon.

Anomalies have also been reported in CERN

In fact, the experimental results do not agree with the theoretical calculations made so far. The theoretical number for the muon’s magnetic moment is currently 2.00233183620 (with a possible error in the last two digits after the decimal point). The number measured in the previous experiment conducted in New York State was certainly different, but the certainty was relatively low (3.7 sigma, i.e. one in ten thousand certainty). To our seasoned readers we will remind you recently The metronome is reported in the hub On the anomalies in the measurements were collected with confirmation of 3.9 sigma, but after collecting more data, the result disappeared. Therefore, physicists prefer to consider an important finding as a “discovery” only if certainty is at least 5 sigma (one in 3.5 million chance that this is wrong). Today, an experiment in Illinois showed that the magnetic moment of the muon is 2.00233184122 (again with an error in the last two digits after the decimal point with a precision of 4.25 sigma). This is a major advance towards what is considered “discovery”. The researchers hope to achieve this goal after analyzing the remaining measurements that were collected in the third and fourth stages of the experiment. Permilev stated that they hope to complete the analysis next summer with the goal of reaching 5 sigma certainty. Permilev scientist Chris Foley adds, “So far we have analyzed only 6% of the data that we have collected. However, with this data already, we can see a mismatch between the Standard Model and what nature is telling us. I think we’ll hear more exciting news in.” Next years “.

It is important to note that while the error is small, it is certainly important to claim that it is new physics. what kind? There is no knowledge. It may be a massive particle formed with low probability interacting with the muon but has not yet been detected in accelerators. It could be a new force we haven’t discovered yet or another type of Higgs particle.

At Permilev’s press conference, they mentioned that this was just the beginning for them and now they are on the verge of a project that will last at least a decade. The project will continue to collect data on the magnetic moment of the muon and at the same time will examine the ways in which the muon decays in an experiment known as mu2e. Researchers hope to measure the disintegration processes of an innovative experiment demonstrated only by new theories that go beyond the standard model.

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