Undergraduate Honors Thesis Projects

Date of Award

Spring 4-11-2016

Document Type

Honors Paper

Degree Name

Physics-BS

Department

Physics

Advisor

Dr. David G. Robertson

First Committee Member

Dr. Uwe Trittmann

Second Committee Member

Dr. Wendy Sherman-Heckler

Keywords

Precision Tests, Supersymmetry, Quantum Field Theory, Anomalous Magnetic Moment

Subject Categories

Elementary Particles and Fields and String Theory

Abstract

We study the contributions to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon from theories beyond the Standard Model, specifically supersymmetry. Results found at Brookhaven National Laboratory in 2001 during the E821 experiment indicate that current theories may not fully account for all of the interactions between the muon and fundamental gauge bosons. We re-derive Dirac's famous result of g=2. We then reproduce the one loop contributions from electroweak theory to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. We then use these calculations as a template for theories that go beyond the Standard Model. We show illustrative results for minimal supersymmetry in scenarios with Planck-scale supersymmetry breaking (MSUGRA), and determine parameter ranges that would be consistent with the anomalous magnetic moment discrepancy. In this way a sensitive probe like the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon may be used to constrain new physics.

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