'Tantalizing' Results of 2 Experiments Defy Physics Rulebook

[Nevilledog]

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Preliminary results from two experiments suggest something could be wrong with the basic way physicists think the universe works, a prospect that has the field of particle physics both baffled and thrilled.

‘Tantalizing’ Results of 2 Experiments Defy Physics Rulebook
Preliminary results from two experiments suggest something could be wrong with the basic way physicists think the universe works, a prospect that has the field of particle physics both baffled and …
courthousenews.com
10:24 AM · Apr 7, 2021

https://www.courthousenews.com/tantalizing-results-of-2-experiments-defy-physics-rulebook/

(AP) — Preliminary results from two experiments suggest something could be wrong with the basic way physicists think the universe works, a prospect that has the field of particle physics both baffled and thrilled.

The tiniest particles aren’t quite doing what is expected of them when spun around two different long-running experiments in the United States and Europe. The confounding results — if proven right — reveal major problems with the rulebook physicists use to describe and understand how the universe works at the subatomic level.

Theoretical physicist Matthew McCullough of CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, said untangling the mysteries could “take us beyond our current understanding of nature.”

The rulebook, called the Standard Model, was developed about 50 years ago. Experiments performed over decades affirmed over and again that its descriptions of the particles and the forces that make up and govern the universe were pretty much on the mark. Until now.

“New particles, new physics might be just beyond our research,” said Wayne State University particle physicist Alexey Petrov. “It’s tantalizing.”

*snip*

[soothsayer]

1. Good, scientists need a good puzzle

[taxi]

2. a good puzzle

why use that picture? Other than it being perfect for the subject.

[soothsayer]

3. There is a helluva lotta character in that face

[taxi]

4. Yea, I think he likes being away from that station

Nice that they used a back-of-house photo, instead of the tired old same old.

[Qutzupalotl]

5. He looks conCERNed.

[LudwigPastorius]

7. He's Russian.

What you're seeing is probably a hell of a lotta cigarettes in that face.

[LudwigPastorius]

6. So, a muon is always a fermion and a lepton, but...

a fermion can be a lepton without necessarily being a muon.

[caraher]

9. Yes

Fermions are particles with half-integer spin: electrons, muons, quarks, neutrinos and many more.

Leptons are basically all fermions that do not participate in the strong interaction. Electrons, muons and neutrinos are examples of leptons; quarks are an example of a fermion that is not a lepton.

Oversimplifying, a muon is basically like a heavy electron. Both muons and electrons are fermions, and both are also leptons.

[TheBlackAdder]

8. Just wait until they find quarks within quarks, and then quarks within quarks' quarks.

[electric_blue68]

10. Like an infinite Atomic Russian Nesting Doll? ; )

[Klaralven]

11. Scientific Seminar: First results from the Muon g-2 experiment at Fermilab

Moving the magnet sort of redefines "wide load".

[Leith]

12. The way this puzzle is described is a bit irritating

There's nothing wrong with current scientific thinking. Just as there is nothing wrong with Newtonian physics just because it couldn't accurately describe certain observed occurrences until Einstein came along.

For example: the planet Mercury was not orbiting the sun exactly the way that astronomers thought it should. No matter what, no matter how they took into account the effects of the other planets, Mercury's path was not precisely what it should have been.

Eventually, they arrived at the solution with the help of Einsteinian physics which says that matter and energy are the same thing in different form. So what? If they are the same, then energy can have a gravitational field like matter does. The sun's own gravitational field had its own gravitational field which explained Mercury's perturbations quite well. Blows yer mind, don't it?

This puzzle could open up all sorts of new hypotheses to explore.