Physics colloquium-“Dial ‘M’ for Muons”

Gordan Krnjaic

Fermilab

Abstract: The longstanding muon g-2 anomaly is perhaps the largest discrepancy in fundamental physics and could become the first laboratory discovery of physics beyond the Standard Model of particles and interactions. In this talk, I will review what it means to measure a magnetic dipole moment, categorize the different theoretical possibilities for new particles that resolve the anomaly, and present a road map for how to discover the new particles responsible (even in a worst case “nightmare” scenario). A decisive probe of the underlying new physics will involve a combination of rare particle decay searches, new muon beam fixed-target experiments, and possibly even a future muon collider. 

Biography: Gordan Krnjaic got his BA from Reed College in 2005  (graduating alongside Prof. Kapit) and PhD from Johns Hopkins University in 2012. From 2012-2015 he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario and from 2015-2018 the David N. Schramm Theory Fellow at Fermilab. In 2018 he became an Associate Scientist at Fermilab and holds a joint appointment as Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago. His research is primarily in theoretical particle physics and cosmology with an emphasis on physics beyond the Standard Model.

Lecture held in CoorsTek 140/150.