Physics Seminar Series continues today (Wednesday, April 5)
Abstract: According to the way that we currently understand our universe, it is impossible for a lepton to change from one flavor (electron, muon, tau) to another flavor in a reaction, which is known as the law of lepton flavor conservation. This basic assumption has already been challenged by neutrinos, but we have never observed charged leptons violating this conservation law. The Mu2e experiment based at Fermilab seeks to test this conservation law to a precision 10,000 times higher than any experiment so far. Specifically, we plan to look for the direct conversion of a muon into an electron. An observation of such a process would be unambiguous evidence for new physics.