magnetic moment

These exist fleetingly, but for long enough to affect how the muon interacts with the magnetic field and change the measured magnetic moment, albeit by a tiny amount.

Muons also have an intrinsic property called “spin,” and the relation between the spin and the magnetic moment of the muon is known as the g-factor.

Both measurements of the muon’s wobbliness, or magnetic moment, significantly overshoot the theoretical prediction, as calculated last year by an international consortium of 132 theoretical physicists.

BMW’s larger term leads to a larger overall predicted value of the muon’s magnetic moment, bringing the prediction in line with the measurements.

In the paper, a team of theorists known as BMW present a state-of-the-art supercomputer calculation of the most uncertain term that goes into the Standard Model prediction of the muon’s magnetic moment.

The result of the first cooling was a reduction of the magnetic moment, to the extent of nearly 50% in the case of the former.

The method is not strictly an absolute one, since it presupposes a knowledge of the magnetic moment of the deflecting magnet.