If you are anything like me, you have zero ideas what muons are. But these little suckers are creating quite a furor in the scientific community. Experiments, conducted at the Fermilab in the US state of Illinois, have left
physicists scratching their heads. Muons have deviated from their normal behavior, making scientists frantic for answers. This requires one to get educated on the matter. Let’s take a deep dive into physics to understand the significance of this defiance. There exists something called the Standard Model in physics. The Model governs three of the four fundamental forces in the universe- electromagnetic, weak, and strong interactions. The fourth, gravity, has the relativity theory to take care of it because gravity does not seem to matter to the particles present in the Standard Model. The Standard Model is a repository of 17 known elementary particles such as electrons, neutrons, quarks, Higgs-boson particle, etc., and their properties.
Muons, a heavier cousin of electrons, are one of these particles. In nature, they occur when cosmic rays strike the earth’s atmosphere. The experiment that catapulted muons into fame was conducted by generating large numbers of muons using particle accelerator available at Fermilab. The muons were then placed under a large magnetic field. Now, muons, like electrons, have a small magnetic field of their own. When placed under a large magnetic field, the muons start to wobble, kind of like a spinning top. But there is a method to this madness. The rate at which these muons wobble depends on how strong the muon’s mini magnetic field is and what other particles or forces it interacts with. The standard model helps predict the rate at which these muons should wobble. The wobble is measured in terms of the g-factor. The g-factor of the muons should have been 2.00233183620, but the actual rate came out to be 2.00233184122. Look, I know what you’re thinking; there is hardly any difference between the two numbers. But then you, like me, probably don’t even bother calculating beyond two decimal points. On a larger scale, these minute differences are unacceptable. Muons have misbehaved, and the scientists would like to know why.
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This is not the first instance of this mismatch. In 2001, an experiment at the Brookhaven National Lab had yielded similar results. The scientists, not sure of the credibility of the statistics, decided to repeat the experiment. And voila! Here go the muons again wobbling faster than the boundaries set.
One popular reason behind this is being attributed to the presence of unknown particles. This generates a lot of excitement in the community, the prospect of there being things still elusive to the human mind. Well, if this turns out to be true, it will confirm that despite our technological advance, we are still at the tip of the iceberg in comprehending the universe.
Another school of thought is that the Standard Model has fallen by the wayside. But if this is indeed the truth, it will require an overhaul of all the processes associated with the Standard Model such as electricity.
The calculations have one in 40,000 chance of being incorrect, opine the scientists. The calculations are complex and were arrived at with the help of more than 130 scientists. But then again, only 6% of the data has been analyzed, which the experiment will eventually collect. The scientists will continue with the experiments to bring it to its natural conclusion, leaving no room for uncertainty.
It should be noted, however, that calculations run through hours of supercomputer time at Penn State have yielded measurements of the g-factor similar to the one at Fermilab. Corollary: the Standard Model estimates that both Brookhaven and Fermilab used were off.
The story is far from over. It has just begun.
