A team of scientists from Harvard University and Northwestern University has discovered the most exact number for an electron’s magnetic moment to date. The group outlines the techniques they used to quantify electron characteristics and the consequences of the improved accuracy in a study published in the journal Physical Review Letters.
An electron’s magnetic moment, also known as the electron magnetic dipole moment, is determined by its electric and spin characteristics. It is the most carefully measured and also the most completely confirmed of all the fundamental qualities that have been researched.
Measuring the electron’s magnetic moment for better precision is crucial because physicists anticipate that such observations will eventually assist in completing the standard model of physics. The study team has measured the magnetic moment with double the accuracy of any previous attempt—the last best effort was 14 years ago.
Physicists utilise the magnetic moments of particles like as electrons to test the standard model by investigating interactions between them and virtual particles created within a vacuum chamber. Such research entails evaluating the impact of collisions on both the magnetic moment and its g component and then comparing the findings to what the conventional model predicts.
A single electron was suspended in a Penning trap with a magnetic field kept constant at 5 T. After that, the room was refrigerated to virtually absolute zero. The scientists took measurements of what they call “quantum leaps” of electrons between energy levels. Next, using a magnetic field gradient, scientists were able to perform quantum nondemolition detection—a method for measuring quantum leaps without affecting the quantum state, reducing the uncertainty of magnetic moment measurements. The eventual result was a measurement of the magnetic moment with unprecedented precision—0.13 fractions of a trillion.
The new measurements are likely to have an influence on the effort necessary in future standard model testing.
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