Laureates
- Breakthrough Prize
- Special Breakthrough Prize
- New Horizons Prize
- Vera Rubin New Frontiers Prize
- Physics Frontiers Prize
The 2026 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics is awarded to the Muon g-2 collaborations at CERN, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and Fermilab. Across more than six decades, scientists and engineers from three collaborations representing dozens of institutions have pushed experimental precision ever higher in pursuit of a single, very significant number: the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. The muon is a heavy, unstable cousin of the electron, and like the electron it can behave like a tiny magnet. The physicists are looking to capture how the muon’s magnetic strength is subtly affected by the “foam” of virtual particles constantly popping in and out of empty space around it. Measuring the muon’s magnetism and comparing it to theoretical predictions allows physicists to test whether any unknown particles or forces are hidden in this foam. In other words, to probe for new physics beyond the Standard Model, our most successful theory of particles and forces.
The name of each winner can be found on the pages below.
