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For decades, the evidence rested on the behavior of the muon \u2013 a short-lived particle similar to an electron, but one that was much heavier.<\/p>\n
By returning to that stubborn gap, Professor Zoltan Fodor at Pennsylvania State University (PSU<\/a>) showed the mismatch came from calculation, not nature.<\/p>\n His team found that the old theory matched the measured value once the hardest strong-force piece was recalculated.<\/p>\n That answer does not end the search for unknown physics, but it makes the muon mystery much harder to use as evidence.<\/p>\n The significance of muons<\/p>\n Muons are 207 times heavier than electrons and react more strongly to subtle quantum effects.<\/p>\n Inside a magnetic field<\/a>, a muon\u2019s wobble changes when short-lived particles briefly affect its motion and then vanish.<\/p>\n Physicists track that wobble by measuring how much the particle\u2019s motion deviates from a simple expected value.<\/p>\n Because even tiny unknown forces could change that deviation, the muon became one of physics\u2019 most sensitive tests.<\/p>\n Strong force creates difficulty<\/p>\n Trouble came from the strong force<\/a> \u2013 the interaction that holds protons and neutrons together at their deepest level.<\/p>\n Trying to calculate it gets difficult because the same force can create more particles during the calculation.<\/p>\n That messy effect feeds into hadronic vacuum polarization \u2013 a strong-force disturbance that changes electromagnetic behavior in empty space.<\/p>\n For years, uncertainty in that term left enough room for a possible gap in known physics.<\/p>\n An answer found in lattice<\/p>\n Fodor\u2019s team used lattice quantum chromodynamics (QCD<\/a>) a supercomputer method that breaks space-time into tiny grid points.<\/p>\n Those grid points let researchers solve strong-force equations step by step instead of relying only on older particle-collision data.<\/p>\n Older calculations leaned heavily on thousands of experimental results, then reworked them into one magnetic number.<\/p>\n The lattice calculation gave the team a separate way to test whether the suspicious gap was real.<\/p>\n Effectiveness of hybrid evidence<\/p>\n Precision improved when the team combined computer-based grid calculations with reliable experimental data, using measurements from regions where experiments already agree.<\/p>\n Short and medium-range contributions came from the computer simulation, while the longest-range part relied on low-energy experimental data.<\/p>\n That farthest piece contributed less than 5% of the final answer, so it reduced noise without taking over.<\/p>\n Finer grids also cut errors from earlier work, lowering the remaining uncertainty around a hidden force.<\/p>\n Close matches of theory and experiment<\/p>\n When the new value entered the Standard Model prediction, theory and experiment differed by only half a standard deviation<\/a> \u2013 a normal statistical spread.<\/p>\n The calculation narrowed the uncertainty to a tiny fraction and matched the theory\u2019s prediction with extraordinary precision.<\/p>\n \u201cWe applied a new method to calculate this discrepancy quantity, and we showed that it\u2019s not there,\u201d said Fodor.<\/p>\n Once reframed, the remaining gap became too small to support the old claim of a broken theory.<\/p>\n What remains visible<\/p>\n Unknown physics still exists as a target, but a fifth force<\/a>, a new basic interaction, now looks less likely here.<\/p>\n A 2025 theory update<\/a> had already moved predictions toward lattice results as data conflicts became harder to combine.<\/p>\n Future experiments can still test the muon with different machines, cleaner beams, and provide new checks on hidden interactions.<\/p>\n Experiment remains important<\/p>\n Final measurements<\/a> from Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory \u2013 a U.S. particle physics lab in Illinois \u2013 achieved accuracy to within a tiny fraction of a million.<\/p>\n That means experimenters measured the muon\u2019s magnetic behavior with an error far below one unit in a million.<\/p>\n Earlier measurements in Europe and New York built the long record behind today\u2019s comparison. <\/p>\n Without those measurements, no one could know whether the new calculation matched nature or merely looked elegant.<\/p>\n Oddities within the proof<\/p>\n The result carries an emotional twist because many physicists hoped the mismatch would reveal a new force.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople ask me how it feels to make this discovery and, to be honest, I feel somewhat sad,\u201d said Fodor.<\/p>\n Instead, the calculation strengthened quantum field theory \u2013 the math framework that lets particles and forces act through fields.<\/p>\n That disappointment still counts as progress because science continues to advance despite a failed hypothesis.<\/p>\n Limitations regarding new physics <\/p>\n Muon evidence now points less toward broken physics and more toward a theory tested with unusual precision from both machines and math.<\/p>\n Future searches will need stronger evidence, but this result draws a clearer boundary around one failed explanation without ending the search.<\/p>\n The study is published in the journal Nature<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2013<\/p>\n Like what you read? Subscribe to our newsletter<\/a> for engaging articles, exclusive content, and the latest updates.<\/p>\n Check us out on EarthSnap<\/a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls<\/a> and Earth.com.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A long-suspected crack in particle physics was a calculation problem, not a broken law of nature, according to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[271],"tags":[18,19,17,452,133],"class_list":{"0":"post-465651","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-physics","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-physics","12":"tag-science"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116507510503019843","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}