• chrisphero@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      We don’t know for sure, it is one of the possibilities why prediction and result don’t line up.

      “If the measurements don’t line up with the prediction [calculated with the standard model], that could be a sign that there is some unknown particle appearing in the loops—which could, for example, be the carrier of a fifth force,” particle physicist Jon Butterworth told The Guardian.

    • yokonzo@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It’s in the article, the standard model is proving to be incomplete, not covering new phenomena, it works for other things but there’s something missing

    • floofloof@lemmy.caOP
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      1 year ago

      The article overstates the case. I posted it because it’s interesting, but the headline is hyperbole. It is the usual situation where an anomalous observation could lead to an important new discovery and a revolution in theory, but it may turn out to be an issue with the experimental setup, a confounding factor that no one has thought of, or some new phenomenon that can after all be accommodated without major theoretical upheavals.

      Here’s another source that reports that a Russian experiment has obtained results that fit with the Standard Model, so the discrepancy could be caused by any of these other factors, not by a deficiency in the Standard Model itself:

      Dreams of new physics fade with latest muon magnetism result

      (archive link)

      So it’s far too early to be saying we’re on the brink of a scientific revolution due to these anomalous results. All we know is that the anomaly seems intermittent and is so far unexplained.