By trapping a single electron in an isolated chamber cooled to near absolute zero, physicists were able to measure the particle’s magnetic moment – a key quantum property – at a precision of 1.3 parts in 10 trillion

Physics 13 October 2022

Measuring electrons could help the search for new physics

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A new assessment of the electron is the most precise measurement of a particle ever taken, at a precision of 1.3 parts in 10 trillion, and could tell us about new physics happening at the smallest scales.

The electron’s magnetic moment is a quantum property related to magnetism and is predicted by the standard model, our current understanding of how the basic building blocks of the universe interact. But the standard model is unable to explain certain real-world observations, like dark matter …