A combined team of physicists from Harvard University and Northwestern University has found the most precise value yet for the magnetic moment of an electron. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the group describes the methods they used to measure properties of an electron and implications of the new precision.
The magnetic moment of an electron, also known as the electron magnetic dipole moment, results from its electric and spin properties. Of all the elementary properties that have been studied, it is the one that has been the most precisely measured, and also the most accurately verified.
Measuring the magnetic moment of an electron to ever higher standards of accuracy is important because physicists believe that at some point, such measurements will help to complete the standard model of physics. In this new effort, the research group has measured the magnetic moment to a precision twice that of any other effort—the last best effort was 14 years ago.
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