Arts & Sciences Events
[PAST EVENT] Physics Colloquium
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- Open to the public
Wesley Gohn, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, Title of Talk: Breaking the Standard Model with Precision
Abstract: While colliding particles at the highest energies provides an important frontier in which to look for physics beyond the standard model, we can also search for new physics by pushing the precision at which the theory is tested, and with sufficiently high precision, we can probe energy scaled far beyond those of the LHC. New experiments will push that boundary by performing precision measurements with muons such as the Muon g-2 experiment at Fermilab and precision electron scattering measurements such as the QWeak and M{\o}ller experiments at Jefferson Lab. Muon g-2 will improve the uncertainty on the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon $a_\mu$ by a factor of four over Brookhaven experiment E821, and M{\o}ller will improve the uncertainty on $A_{PV}$ by a factor of five on the previous E158 experiment at SLAC. Both of the previous experiments measured 3$\sigma$ discrepancies which could be reconciled in the new experiments. These improvements in precision, combined with recent improvements in our understanding of the QCD contributions to the muon $a_\mu$, could provide a better than 5$\sigma$ discrepancy with the standard model, a clear indication of new physics.