Scientists win award for measuring muon magnetic moment

In 2026, the scientific community celebrated a monumental achievement: the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics was awarded to the Muon g-2 collaborations.

This prestigious award recognizes a nearly 70-year effort to measure the <span title="anomalous magnetic moment of the muon">anomalous magnetic moment of the muon</span>.

Muons are heavy relatives of electrons that act like tiny magnets.

When placed in magnetic fields, they experience a "wobble," or precession.

However, the vacuum of space is filled with a <span title="virtual foam">virtual foam</span> of particles that interact with the muon, causing a slight deviation from that value.

Measuring this difference is a high-precision stress test of the <span title="Standard Model">Standard Model</span> of particle physics.

In 2025, researchers at Fermilab achieved an incredible precision of 127 parts per billion.

This long-term project, spanning from CERN to Fermilab, shows that scientific discovery requires immense persistence and global collaboration, ultimately pushing the boundaries of what we understand about the building blocks of our universe.