Provided
The muon g-2 ring sits in its detector hall amidst electronics racks, the muon beamline and other equipment at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.
From theory to experiment: CLASSE contributions recognized in 2026 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics
Researchers and technical staff from the Cornell Laboratory for Accelerator-based Sciences & Education, CLASSE, played key roles in the international muon g-2 collaborations that were awarded the 2026 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics.
The prize recognizes decades of work across experiments at CERN, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory to precisely measure the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon, a quantity that provides one of the most sensitive tests of the Standard Model of particle physics.
Among those recognized is Cornell physicist Lawrence Gibbons, whose group at Cornell and CLASSE contributed to detector systems, electronics, firmware, beam instrumentation, and data analysis that enabled the experiment’s extraordinary precision.
“It was really gratifying to have the experiment recognized,” Gibbons said. “These small, high-precision experiments sometimes get lost in the shuffle compared to the very large collider experiments. But they open windows in very different ways into what else could be out there.”
Serge Petchenyi/Cornell University
From left, Xi Yang, PhD '10, senior lecturer of finance in the SC Johnson College of Business; Christine Ye; Christine Ye Award recipient Margaret E. Foster, doctoral candidate in communication; Cornelia Ye Award recipient Naman Agrawal, doctoral candidate in neurobiology and behavior; Cornelia Ye; and Derina Samuel, associate director of graduate student development at the Center for Teaching Innovation.
NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI)
Artist concept of the gas giant planet WD 1856 b orbiting a white dwarf star. The planet is 7 times larger than the Earth-sized white dwarf it orbits. WD 1856 b has methane and hazes in its atmosphere, which would give it a similar color to Saturn's moon Titan. The white dwarf formed from a star that died 5 billion years ago, and has been cooling ever since, giving it an orange colour similar to the Sun.
Provided
The muon g-2 ring sits in its detector hall amidst electronics racks, the muon beamline and other equipment at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.
