Preliminary results from two experiments suggest something could be wrong with the basic way physicists think the universe works - a prospect that has the field of particle physics both baffled and thrilled.
Tiny particles called muons arenât quite doing what is expected of them in two different long-running experiments in the United States and Europe.
The confounding results - if proven right - reveal major problems with the rulebook physicists use to describe and understand how the universe works at the subatomic level.
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âWe think we might be swimming in a sea of background particles all the time that just havenât been directly discovered,â Fermilab experiment co-chief scientist Chris Polly said in a press conference.
Particle research finding could break the laws of physics
7 Apr, 2021 11:06 PM
11 minutes to read
The Muon g-2 particle storage ring in the MC-1 Building at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois. Photo / Fermilab/US Department of Energy via The New York Times
The Muon g-2 particle storage ring in the MC-1 Building at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois. Photo / Fermilab/US Department of Energy via The New York Times
New York Times
By: Dennis Overbye Evidence is mounting that a tiny subatomic particle seems to be disobeying the known laws of physics, scientists have announced, a finding that would open a vast and tantalising hole in our understanding of the
Last Updated: Tantalizing Lab Results Defy Physics Rulebook
Preliminary results from two experiments suggest something could be wrong with the basic way physicists think the universe works, a prospect that has the field of particle physics both baffled and thrilled.
Preliminary results from two experiments suggest something could be wrong with the basic way physicists think the universe works, a prospect that has the field of particle physics both baffled and thrilled.
The tiniest particles aren t quite doing what is expected of them when spun around two different long-running experiments in the United States and Europe. The confounding results if proven right reveal major problems with the rulebook physicists use to describe and understand how the universe works at the subatomic level.
Harry Pettit, Senior Digital Technology and Science Reporter
8 Apr 2021, 17:16
SCIENTISTS may have to rewrite our grasp of how the universe works after they unearthed evidence of a FIFTH force of nature.
Preliminary results from two experiments suggest something could be wrong with our understanding of tiny, fundamental particles.
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The Muon g-2 ring at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory studies the wobble of tiny particles called MuonsCredit: Eyevine
The prospect that has the field of particle physics both baffled and thrilled.
Subatomic particles called muons aren t quite doing what is expected of them in two long-running experiments in the United States and Europe.
UMass Amherst researchers contribute to landmark findings
April 7, 2021
David Flay examines the Muon g-2 plunging probe installation. Photo courtesy DOE.
AMHERST, Mass. – The long-awaited first results from the Muon g-2 experiment at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory show fundamental particles called muons behaving in a way that is not predicted by scientists’ best theory, the Standard Model of particle physics. This landmark result, made with unprecedented precision and to which UMass Amherst’s David Kawall’s research group made key contributions, confirms a discrepancy that has been gnawing at researchers for decades.
“Today is an extraordinary day, long awaited not only by us but by the whole international physics community,” said Graziano Venanzoni, co-spokesperson of the Muon g-2 experiment and physicist at the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics. “A large amount of credit goes to our young researche