The Muon Experimental Anomalies Are Explained by a New Interaction Proportional to Charge

Abstract

The "proton size puzzle" and the "muon anomalous moment problem" are incomplete descriptions of significant discrepancies of Standard Model calculations with experiments. What is particularly new is that the experiments and theory confront a new regime of ultra-precise physics where traditional piece-meal analysis methods fail to be self-consistent. At current levels of precision the proton size $r_{p}$, the Rydberg constant $R_{\infty}$, the fine structure constant $\alpha$ and the electron mass (Compton wavelength $\lambda_{c}$) are inextricably coupled, so that the actual discrepancies might be almost anywhere, while merely {\it appearing} to be muon-derived through a historical order of assumptions. We have conducted a new global fit to all of the relevant data using the entire body of Standard Model theory. A conventional $\chi^{2}$ statistic is used to fit all relevant fundamental constants with and without a generic "no-name" boson of undetermined spin that interacts universally with leptons and hadrons proportional to electric charge. The analysis discovers a new local minimum region of $\chi^{2}$ where all of $r_{p}, \, R_{\infty}, \, \alpha, \, \lambda_{e}$ have new values compared to previous work, while accommodating all of the data, unlike previous determinations. A new particle $X$, possibly related to the "dark photon" but more generally defined, is predicted to be observed in electron- and muon-based experiments.