I admit I’m taking your joke a little too seriously - Dr. Hossenfelder’s misguidedcrusade against particle physics has made me sensitive to this - but this isn’t so much a new particle as it is testing a prediction of quantum theory against experimental results and confirming 20 years of discrepancy. Amusingly, the reason they’re getting excited now is because they’re getting closer to refining the calculation to a 5σ difference from theory - in other words, they already knew it was potentially new physics, and this is trying to confirm it.
I recommend the PBS Space Time video if you want a thorough (if a bit technical) explanation, or Fermilab’s which breaks it out a bit more simply.
I admit I’m taking your joke a little too seriously - Dr. Hossenfelder’s misguided crusade against particle physics has made me sensitive to this - but this isn’t so much a new particle as it is testing a prediction of quantum theory against experimental results and confirming 20 years of discrepancy. Amusingly, the reason they’re getting excited now is because they’re getting closer to refining the calculation to a 5σ difference from theory - in other words, they already knew it was potentially new physics, and this is trying to confirm it.
I recommend the PBS Space Time video if you want a thorough (if a bit technical) explanation, or Fermilab’s which breaks it out a bit more simply.