Standard Model

• We are two scientists who study nuclear and particle physics using CERN’s Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, Switzerland.
• Working with an international group of nuclear and particle physicists, our team realized that hidden in the data from previous studies was a remarkable and innovative experiment.
• In a new paper published in Physical Review Letters, we developed a new method with our colleagues for measuring how fast a particle called the tau wobbles.

Why measure a wobble?

• Taus are the heaviest in this family of three and the most mysterious, as they exist only for minuscule amounts of time.
• Since the 1940s, physicists have been interested in measuring magnetic moments to reveal intriguing effects in the quantum world.
• By measuring this wobble very precisely, physicists can peer into this cloud to uncover possible hints of undiscovered particles.

Testing electrons, muons and taus

• Muons and taus are much heavier but also far shorter-lived than electrons.
• They found that muons wobbled noticeably faster than Standard Model predictions, suggesting unknown particles may be appearing in the muon’s quantum cloud.
• But taus are also the hardest to see, since they live for just a millionth of the time a muon exists.

Lead ions for near-miss physics

• The particles used in this experiment were lead nuclei that had been stripped of their electrons – called lead ions.
• The electromagnetic fields of lead ions contain particles of light called photons.
• When two lead ions collide, their photons can also collide and convert all their energy into a single pair of particles.
• It goes like this: Lead ions are so small that they often miss each other in collision experiments.

First measurement of tau wobble in two decades

• Using that data, the team was also able to measure the tau magnetic moment – the first time such a measurement had been done since 2004.
• This landmark result measured the tau wobble to two decimal places.
• Much to our astonishment, this method tied the previous best measurement using only one month of data recorded in 2018.
• This increase in data will double the accuracy of the measurement of the tau magnetic moment, and improvements to analysis methods may go even further.

• The Muon g-2 collaboration describes the result in a paper that they submitted today to Physical Review Letters.
• In addition to the larger data set, this latest g-2 measurement is enhanced by updates to the Fermilab experiment itself.
• In 2020, the Muon g-2 Theory Initiative announced the best Standard Model prediction for muon g-2 available at that time.
• Until then, physicists have a new and improved measurement of muon g-2 that is a significant step toward its final physics goal.

• While each of its main theories works extraordinarily well, they clash also with each other – leaving physicists to search for a deeper, more fundamental theory.
• But do we really need a theory of everything?
• Our two best theories of nature are quantum mechanics and general relativity, describing the smallest and biggest scales of the universe, respectively.
• If it could, it would indicate that quantum theory might ultimately be more fundamental than general relativity, accounting for four out of five forces – suggesting general relativity ultimately may need to be modified.
• If it couldn’t, that would shake up physics – suggesting we may need to modify quantum mechanics, too.

What about other mysterious properties?

• And what about other mysterious properties such as dark energy, which causes the universe to expand at an accelerated rate, or dark matter, an invisible substance making up most of the matter in the universe?
• “Dark matter and dark energy are most of the matter energy content in the universe.
• So it’s not really a theory of everything if it’s not accounting for most of the matter energy content in the universe,” she argues.
• “One of the strengths that people will point to with string theory is that string theory built on quantum field theory,” explains Prescod-Weinstein.

• SACRAMENTO, Calif., Nov. 30, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- tab32 , the #1 all-in-one cloud technology dental platform, is celebrating 10 years of innovation.
• tab32 has been a vital part of the evolution of dental practice management technology during its 10 years of innovation.
• tab32 is the first dental platform that offers this, and I'm proud to join them in, not only, democratizing data, but also modernizing the backbone of the dental office: the practice management software."
• tab32 , an Inc. 5000 company, is the industry's #1 all-in-one cloud technology platform with three major products, Open Data Warehousing (BI and analytics tool), Dental Practice Management System (Dental PMS), and their stand-alone Image Cloud for radiology.