We present a new measurement of the positive muon magnetic anomaly, a µ ≡ (gµ − 2)/2, from the Fermilab Muon g −2 Experiment based on data collected in 2019 and 2020. We have analyzed more than four times the number of positrons from muon decay than in our previous result from 2018 data. The systematic error is reduced by more than a factor of two due to better running conditions, a more stable beam, and improved knowledge of the magnetic field weighted by the muon distribution, ω′ p , and of the anomalous precession frequency corrected for beam dynamics effects, ωa. From the ratio ωa/ω ′ p , together with precisely determined external parameters, we determine a µ = 116 592 057(25) × 10 −11 (0.21 ppm). Combining this result with our previous result from the 2018 data, we obtain a µ (FNAL) = 116 592 055(24) × 10 −11 (0.20 ppm). The new experimental world average is aµ(Exp) = 116 592 059(22) × 10 −11 (0.19 ppm), which represents a factor of two improvement in precision.

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The International Axion Observatory (IAXO) will be a forth generation axion helioscope. As its primary physics goal, IAXO will look for axions or axion-like particles (ALPs) originating in the Sun via the Primakoff conversion of the solar plasma photons. In terms of signalto-noise ratio, IAXO will be about 4-5 orders of magnitude more sensitive than CAST, currently the most powerful axion helioscope, reaching sensitivity to axion-photon couplings down to a few ×10 −12 GeV −1 and thus probing a large fraction of the currently unexplored axion and ALP parameter space. IAXO will also be sensitive to solar axions produced by mechanisms mediated by the axion-electron coupling g ae with sensitivity −for the first time− to values of g ae not previously excluded by astrophysics. With several other possible physics cases, IAXO has the potential to serve as a multi-purpose facility for generic axion and ALP research in the next decade. In this paper we present the conceptual design of IAXO, which follows the layout of an enhanced axion helioscope, based on a purpose-built 20m-long 8-coils toroidal superconducting magnet. All the eight 60cm-diameter magnet bores are equipped with focusing x-ray optics, able to focus the signal photons into ∼ 0.2 cm 2 spots that are imaged by ultra-low-background Micromegas x-ray detectors. The magnet is built into a structure with elevation and azimuth drives that will allow for solar tracking for ∼12 h each day.

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In 2006 the PVLAS collaboration reported the observation of an optical rotation generated in vacuum by a magnetic field. To further check against possible instrumental artifacts several upgrades to the PVLAS apparatus have been made during the last year. Two data taking runs, at the wavelength of 1064 nm, have been performed in the new configuration with magnetic field strengths of 2.3 T and 5 T. The 2.3 T field value was chosen in order to avoid stray fields. The new observations do not show the presence of a rotation signal down to the levels of 1.2 · 10 −8 rad at 5 T and 1.0 · 10 −8 rad at 2.3 T (at 95% c.l.) with 45000 passes in the magnetic field zone. In the same conditions no ellipticity signal was detected down to 1.4 · 10 −8 at 2.3 T (at 95% c.l.), whereas at 5 T a signal is still present. The physical nature of this ellipticity as due to an effect depending on B 2 can be excluded by the measurement at 2.3 T. These new results completely exclude the previously published magnetically induced vacuum dichroism results, indicating that they were instrumental artifacts. These new results therefore also exclude the particle interpretation of the previous PVLAS results as due to a spin zero boson. The background ellipticity at 2.3 T can be used to determine a new limit on the total photon-photon scattering cross section of σ γγ < 4.5 · 10 −34 barn at 95% c.l..