One of the fundamental forces is stronger than we thought — SkimNews
Get the Health newsletter
Daily health & science — research, biotech, public health, the studies worth knowing. Free.
- Alessandro Conigli at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and colleagues used lattice quantum chromodynamics (QCD) to calculate two numbers capturing how virtual particle-antiparticle pairs affect the electroweak force at different energy levels.
- The lattice QCD results differed from prior phenomenological calculations by approximately 1%, with the team halving the error margins across two studies published in Physical Review Letters and Physical Review D.
- The same lattice QCD technique resolved a 2024 puzzle: an experiment involving muons had seemed to contradict theoretical calculations, but refinements brought theory and experiment back into agreement.
- Colin Morningstar at Carnegie Mellon University called the calculated properties "badly needed" for experimental searches of new particles and said he applauds the work very heartily.
- Krishna Kumar at the University of Massachusetts Amherst said the biggest implications will be for future colliders like the proposed Future Circular Collider, which would surpass existing experimental precision.
- Conigli said the work should encourage continued investment in better colliders and could be "a game changer" for finding phenomena outside the Standard Model, which cannot currently explain dark matter.
Why it matters: The 1% discrepancy is small but significant because the team halved calculation errors, making the result precise enough to guide experimental hunts for particles beyond the Standard Model—a theory that, despite its success, cannot account for dark matter. Future colliders like the proposed Future Circular Collider will rely on this theoretical precision to interpret any potential discoveries.
Ask SkimNews
