'Tantalizing' lab results defy physics rulebook

Preliminary results from two experiments suggest something could be wrong with the basic way physicists think the universe works, a prospect that has the field of particle physics both baffled and thrilled.

The tiniest particles aren't quite doing what is expected of them when spun around two different long-running experiments in the United States and Europe. The confounding results — if proven right — reveal major problems with the rulebook physicists use to describe and understand how the universe works at the subatomic level.

The rulebook, called the Standard Model, was developed about 50 years ago.

Experiments performed over decades affirmed over and again that its descriptions of the particles and the forces that make up and govern the universe were pretty much on the mark. Until now.

"In conclusion, we've determined the anomalous magnetic moment of muons to an unprecedented 460 parts-per-billion. Our run one result has really just a small fraction of data, but it's already surpassing the errors from the Brookhaven experiment. And after 20 years of people wondering about this mystery from Brookhaven, the headlining news here is that we can confirm the Brookhaven experimental results," said Chris Polly, a Fermilab senior scientist, on Wednesday.

Fermilab is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory specializing in particle physics.