Muon's magnetic moment exposes a hole in the Standard Model, unless it doesn't

In 2021 the Muon g-2 Experiment at Fermilab found a significant discrepancy between the theoretical prediction and the experimental measurement of the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon, indicating the existence of new physics. More recently, however, an alternative prediction has found the Fermilab result to be consistent with the Standard Model. Alex Keshavarzi investigates which side will come out on top (Courtesy: iStock/vi73777; iStock/traffic_analyzer; IOP Publishing) A tense particle-physics showdown will reach new heights in 2025. Over the past 25 years researchers have seen a persistent and growing discrepancy between the theoretical predictions and experimental measurements of an inherent property of the muon – its anomalous magnetic moment. Known as the “muon g-2”, this property serves as a robust test of our understanding of particle physics. Theoretical predictions of the muon g-2 are based on the Standard Model of particle physics (SM). This is our current best theo ... Read full article.