Pursuing universe's particles is a mission for Malayali scientist-couple as team wins ₹28 crore global prize

In the fine morning of April 19, 2026, Suvarna Ramachandran, a Kottayam native who is the Head of the Department of Physics at Alliance University in Bengaluru, was just about to begin the day when her husband, Jimin George, called her to show an email. It conveyed their winning of the Breakthrough Prize, usually called the 'Oscars of Science.' She was taken aback, and the two remained stuck and dumbfounded for half an hour. When the couple was tossed back to sense, the duo called up their parents and conveyed the message.

Suvarna's immediate feeling was gratitude for all those who paved the way for her life's journey. She remembered everyone from classmates to scientists she worked with. She reverenced her teachers at Baker Vidyapeedh and CMS College, Kottayam. While Jimin fondly remembered his faculty at Mahatma Gandhi College, Iritty.

Suvarna had never imagined that she would ever receive the honour, as it's not a prize one applies for. But the recognition cemented her conviction that she was moving in the right direction in pursuit of particles that created the universe. And this milestone was set by Muon, an unstable subatomic particle.

For decades, scientists have been attempting to record precisely the magnetic moment of the muon. The first experiment was conducted in the 1960s at CERN (The European Organization for Nuclear Research), the world's largest particle physics laboratory, located in Geneva. The experiment continued later in the 1990s at Brookhaven National Laboratory, located in Upton, New York.

However, from the experiment conducted between 2018 and 2023 at Fermilab in Chicago, the most precise measurement ever was recorded. And, Suvarna and Jimin were part of a team of 300-odd scientists involved in the historic Muon g-2 experiment, which earned them the 3-million USD (₹28 crore) Prize.

"What makes the experiment more exciting is the unprecedented precision we achieved in measuring the anomalous magnetic moment and the way it all came about far above our expectations," Suvarna expressed her excitement in a chat with Onmanorama. Hailing from Thirunakkara in Kottayam, she is an alumna of CMS College in the town. She did her Physics graduation there and later did her M.Sc. in Physics from the University of Hyderabad. Suvarna obtained her PhD in Physics from the University of Kentucky, USA.

Explaining the findings, Suvarna says that the key result of the Muon g-2 experiment is the very precise measurement of the muon’s magnetic moment and how it behaves in a magnetic field. "Specifically, we measure how much it deviates from the theoretical value. That deviation is sensitive to quantum effects from all known particles and potentially unknown ones," she says and adds that the experimental value of the magnetic moment of the muon is reported to be: a_mu = 0.001165920705(114). The precision of the result is said to be 127 ppb (parts per billion).

As to how the measurements are recorded, Jimin says that while orbiting, the muons decay, producing positrons (along with neutrinos), which are detected around the ring using particle detectors called calorimeters. By combining the precise measurement of the magnetic field with the time distribution of detected positrons, the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon can be calculated.

"The experiment is manoeuvred from a control room with thick layers of concrete beside the ring, as high-energy particles and their decay products emit significant radiation," he says.

Suvarna and Jimin had joined the Muon g-2 collaboration as postdoctoral researchers. They were based at Fermi National Laboratory till 2020 and were part of building and commissioning the experiment, collecting data, and analysing it.

"The first analysis was finalised three years ago. But that was not based on the full data. It took years to extract and analyse the petabytes of data accumulated by the detectors. It was on June 3, 2025, that the precise measurement was published. Now, it is the theorists who should be giving the final result, and it will take many more years to come," Jimin says.

What drew Suvarna to Atomic Physics "is the urge to know how the universe around us works. In particle physics, you can predict something to a very precise degree and then build an experiment to check it. When the measurement and theory don’t match, even slightly, it can point to entirely new physics. That combination of simplicity in principles and extreme precision in testing is very compelling."

According to her, this is the only way to search for knowing how the early universe, just after the so-called Big Bang, behaved. "We cannot travel back in time to know that, right?" she laughs.

A muon is much, much smaller to the extent that we treat it as having no size at all. If an atom were the size of a football field, the nucleus would be like a blueberry at the centre, she says, for the comprehension of a layperson. "If I scale things up so that the nucleus is the size of a football field, even then neither the electron nor the muon turns into something you can see. As far as we can measure, both behave like perfect points with no size at all," says Suvarna.

Referencing the educational scenario in the country, Suvarna suggests the need for changes to spark interest in science. "Exposure matters a lot. When students see how abstract ideas connect to real experiments and how the precision measurements test fundamental laws, it becomes much more engaging. Hands-on demonstrations, good teaching tools, and early exposure to scientific thinking can make a big difference. The importance of scientific thinking and curiosity building should start at the high school level."

As to how important are high-end labs in India, for particle physics, Suvarna quips, "Experimental physics ultimately depends on infrastructure such as accelerators, detectors, and advanced instrumentation. India already contributes to major global collaborations, including work at CERN, but strengthening domestic facilities alongside would allow more independent research and train the next generation of scientists."

Jimin George echoes a similar opinion. "Why did we go to the US is because of the facilities for experiments in particle physics available there. There are several institutes in India, like IISc and IITs. But there, we have fewer facilities for experiments in particle physics. Besides, it's hugely expensive," he says. Meanwhile, he agrees that India offers enough scope for exposure to the theoretical realm.

"Actually, it is not a field we discovered after going to the US. We developed interests in the area when we were in India itself," he recalls and adds, "We were given specialisation in the subject while doing our Masters in Physics at the University of Hyderabad. We had five courses in this field in a year. Therefore, we had a good understanding of the subject early on."

After completing his B Sc in Physics from MG College, Iritty, and M Sc from the University of Hyderabad, Jimin obtained his Physics Doctorate from the State University of New York, USA. He did postdoctoral research at the University of Texas at Austin and at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Jimin and Suvarna are currently working as Assistant Professors in the Department of Physics, Alliance University, Bengaluru.