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Nature paper narrows strong coupling uncertainty to 4.9 parts per mille

Hacker News reports that a Nature paper by ALPHA collaboration theorists narrows the strong coupling's uncertainty to 4.9 parts per mille.

Updated Oct 10, 2026 · 20:10 UTC1 reports

The short version

  • Hacker News reports that seven ALPHA collaboration theorists published a Nature calculation of the strong coupling using step scaling.[Hacker News]
  • The new value, αs = 0.11876 ± 0.00058, has 4.9 parts per mille precision and agrees with the PDG average.[Hacker News]
  • The strong coupling was previously known only to about 7.6 parts per mille, far less precise than the fine-structure constant.[Hacker News]

Key facts

  • Seven ALPHA collaboration theorists published the calculation in Nature last April.[Hacker News]
  • The ALPHA result is αs = 0.11876 ± 0.00058 at the reference momentum MZ, with 4.9 parts per mille precision.[Hacker News]
  • The Particle Data Group world average for αs at MZ is 0.1180 ± 0.0009, with 7.6 parts per mille precision.[Hacker News]
  • The fine-structure constant of electromagnetism has been measured to better than one part in a billion, while αs is known to about one part in a hundred.[Hacker News]

What remains uncertain

  • The story rests on one outlet, Hacker News, and the reporting does not describe independent confirmation of the result.[Hacker News]

Sources

Outlet counts describe coverage, not independent confirmation. Reports may share a wire service or original source.