In cooperation with our friends at Fermilab and dozens of other institutions around the world, UW News has posted an announcement about the latest findings from the Muon g-2 (pronounced “g minus 2”) collaboration, an experiment decades in the making.
This morning, the international team of scientists behind Muon g-2 released the world’s most precise measurement yet of the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. Muons are subatomic particles similar to electrons, but about 200 times more massive. Calculating the muon’s magnetic moment at a high precision will indicate whether it is interacting solely with the particles and forces known today, or if unknown particles or forces are out there unaccounted for in the current Standard Model, the comprehensive theory physicists use to describe how the universe works at its most fundamental level.
Researchers with the UW Precision Muon Physics Group have been part of the Muon g-2 team from the beginning, designing and constructing detectors as well as leading efforts to analyze the massive amounts of data collected. UW scientists involved in the team’s latest efforts are David Hertzog, professor of physics, director of the Center for Experimental Nuclear Physics and Astrophysics and founding spokesperson of the Muon g-2 collaboration; Peter Kammel, research professor of physics; Erik Swanson, a research engineer with CENPA; and current and former postdoctoral researchers Svende Braun, Christine Claessens, Jarek Kaspar and Zach Hodge. Seven UW doctoral students, including recent graduates Brynn MacCoy and Hannah Binney, based their dissertations on this experiment. An eighth UW doctoral degree from muon endeavors is forthcoming from Joshua Labounty.
Read more at UW News