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Standard Model still holding strong

Results dash hopes for a fifth force but provide very precise proof of Standard Model and QFT.

Artist’s conception of the mystery of the magnetic moment of the muon

Credit:

Dani Zemba / Penn State

Physicists have spent the last 20 years pondering an apparent discrepancy between experimental results and theoretical predictions for the magnetic properties of the muon, the electron’s heavier cousin—a mismatch that hinted at a possible fifth force. But according to a new paper published in the journal Nature, the discrepancy is due to a calculation fluke, not exciting new physics, so the Standard Model of particle physics is still holding strong.

“There were many calculations in the last 60 years or so, and as they got more and more precise, they all pointed toward a discrepancy and a new interaction that would upend known laws of physics,” said co-author Zoltan Fodor , a physicist at Penn State University.…