G-2 (gee-minus-two)

Jens Zorn
2004; Bronze, Stainless Steel; Sculpture
Central Campus; Courtyard between Randall Laboratory and West Hall

The creation of Physics Professor Jens Zorn, this piece commemorates the 50th anniversary of the measurements on the electron’s intrinsic magnetism by H. Richard Crane and his students at the University of Michigan. This pioneering work and its modern extensions are a bedrock of quantum electrodynamics. The sculpture G-2 represents the path of a free electron trapped within a so-called “magnetic bottle,” a magnetic field that is slightly more confining at each end than it is at the middle. Prof. Zorn is also the sculptor of The Short, Rich Life of Positronium, located nearby.