{"id":541129,"date":"2026-04-20T14:02:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T14:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/541129\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T14:02:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T14:02:13","slug":"fermilab-experiment-receives-prestigious-breakthrough-prize-in-fundamental-physics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/541129\/","title":{"rendered":"Fermilab experiment receives prestigious Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics"},"content":{"rendered":"

A tiny elementary particle called the muon<\/a> has won a big prize, the Breakthrough Prize<\/a> in Fundamental Physics. Fermilab researchers are among the winners of this year\u2019s Breakthrough Prize, one of the world\u2019s most notable and prestigious scientific awards that celebrates new scientific discoveries. Each prize is $3 million and is presented in the fields of Life Sciences, Fundamental Physics and Mathematics.<\/p>\n

The 2026 award in Fundamental Physics recognized three generations of the Muon g-2 experiment<\/a>, which provided the world\u2019s most precise measurement to date of the muon<\/a>, one of the fundamental subatomic particles. The experiment began at CERN in the 1970s, shifted to Brookhaven National Laboratory in the 1990s and concluded at Fermilab with final publication<\/a> in 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m proud of the role Fermilab played in the Muon g-2 experiment, which is set to stand as the most accurate measurement of the muon for years to come,\u201d said Fermilab Director Norbert Holtkamp. \u201cFermilab has a strong role as a collaborator and integrator, and this was demonstrated by our work with our colleagues at CERN, Brookhaven and institutions from around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Breakthrough Prize, renowned as the \u201cOscars\u00ae of Science,\u201d recognizes the world\u2019s top scientists. The $3 million prize is being awarded to the hundreds of collaborators who contributed to publications reporting key results from CERN, Brookhaven and Fermilab.<\/p>\n

Fermilab scientist Chris Polly was among the four members of the scientific collaborations who accepted the prize. Others included: Bradley Lee Roberts of Boston University, William M. Morse of Brookhaven National Laboratory and David Hertzog of the University of Washington. The prize was presented at a ceremony at the Barker Hangar<\/a> in Santa Monica, California, on Saturday, April 18, 2026.<\/p>\n

\"\"Chris Polly, Fermilab, Lee Roberts, Boston University, David Hertzog, University of Washington and William Morse Brookhaven Lab, attend the 12th Breakthrough Prize Ceremony at Barker Hangar on April 18, 2026 in Santa Monica, California. Credit: Vivien Killilea\/Getty Images for Breakthrough Prize<\/p>\n

The three generations of Muon g-2 experiments were designed to measure the magnetic moment of the muon with ever-increasing precision, exploring the quantum realm where particles briefly appear and vanish\u2014and where even tiny deviations could point to entirely new laws of nature outside of the current Standard Model of Particle Physics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The latest and most precise measurement of the muon\u2019s magnetic moment was announced by Fermilab<\/a> in 2025 and was important because it provided a sensitive test of the Standard Model<\/a> of particle physics.<\/p>\n

Fermilab led the most recent stage of the experiment that reused a 50-foot-diameter superconducting magnetic storage ring from the Brookhaven National Laboratory experiment when it was transported on a land-and-sea journey<\/a> in 2013 from Long Island, New York to Fermilab in Illinois.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Muon g-2 magnetic ring arrived at Fermilab from Long Island in one piece. The move took 35 days and traversed 3,200 miles over land and sea. Credit: Cindy Arnold, Fermilab<\/p>\n

In 2021, the first result from the Muon g-2 experiment at Fermilab confirmed a two-decade-old measurement from Brookhaven, revealing a tantalizing tension with established theoretical predictions\u2014while new calculations continue to refine what the Standard Model itself expects. The second run at Fermilab further improved the precision measurement. The third and final result in 2025 was in perfect agreement with the experiment\u2019s previous results and proved to be the world\u2019s most precise measurement of the muon magnetic anomaly.<\/p>\n

The Breakthrough Prizes were founded by Sergey Brin, Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, Julia and Yuri Milner, and Anne Wojcicki and have been sponsored by foundations established by them. Selection Committees composed of previous Breakthrough Prize laureates in each field choose the winners. Information on the Breakthrough Prize is available at breakthroughprize.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory is America\u2019s premier national laboratory for particle physics and accelerator research. Fermi Forward Discovery Group manages Fermilab for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science. Visit Fermilab\u2019s website at www.fnal.gov<\/a> and follow us on social media.<\/p>\n


\n \t\t\t\t\t\"The <\/a><\/p>\n


\n Mu2e reaches major milestone with tracker move <\/a><\/p>\n

\n February 5, 2026\n <\/p>\n

Researchers at Fermilab moved the final subdetector for Mu2e into the experiment hall, marking a major step forward for the collaboration. Once completed, Mu2e will search for a rare muon conversion that may unlock evidence of physics beyond the Standard Model.<\/p>\n


\n \t\t\t\t\t\"2025 <\/a><\/p>\n


\n \t\t\t\t\t\"The <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A tiny elementary particle called the muon has won a big prize, the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[183664,186551,2302,90,89666,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-541129","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-physics","8":"tag-muon","9":"tag-muon-g-2","10":"tag-physics","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-standard-model","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}