To measure the magnetic moment of the muon to unprecedented precision in the search for new fundamental particles and forces that may contribute to the muon’s internal magnetism. By producing copious numbers of subatomic muon particles in a powerful accelerator, a precise measurement of the muon spin precession and the strength of the external magnetic field can be utilized to determine if new physics is entering through the quantum world encompassing the muon.
Even in the purest vacuum, particles in the universe are never truly alone. At the quantum level they are surrounded by an entourage of other particles that continuously blink in and out of existence. All of the known particles contribute to this quantum foam and the Muon g-2 Experiment at Fermilab utilizes an intense beam of muons to determine if other undiscovered particles and forces are also emerging as part of these vacuum interactions.
After five years of construction and three years of data collection and analysis, a team of >200 researchers announced their first findings from the experiment with a precision surpassing all prior experiments despite only being 6% of the full expected data set. In combination with prior experiments, there is a 4.2 sigma discrepancy between the measured muon anomalous magnetic moment and the theoretical expectation, thus strengthening the evidence that our understanding of the Standard Model governing all known forces is not yet complete.