Kentucky group part of landmark physics experiment
By RICK CHILDRESS, The Herald-LeaderApril 24, 2021 GMT
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) On a February Zoom call, a team of University of Kentucky professors held their breath alongside hundreds of their colleagues across the country, waiting to find out the results of three years of work.
When the moment of truth came there was first silence “then it just erupted,” said Renee Fatemi, a UK professor of physics. It was of course only as loud as you can get on Zoom, but it did little to dampen the significance.
“Everybody’s on mute, of course, on Zoom, but I think everybody in their own homes was shouting, and it was just amazing,” said Tim Gorringe, also a UK physics professor.
On a February Zoom call, a team of University of Kentucky professors held their breath alongside hundreds of their colleagues across the country, waiting to find out the results of three years of work.
LEXINGTON, Ky. (April, 7, 2021) A team of faculty and students from the University of Kentucky Department of Physics and Astronomy in the College of Arts and Sciences, supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), has contributed to a major experiment at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab). The landmark results, announced today, are changing how physicists understand the subatomic world.
Fermilab’s three-year Muon g-2 experiment revealed that fundamental particles, called muons, behave in a way not predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics. The researchers think this behavior could be caused by the existence of undiscovered particles or forces.