Quantum Magic and the Strong Coupling Constant
Abstract
The three gauge couplings of the Standard Model (SM) can be parameterized as the fine structure constant α, the weak mixing angle sin2θw, and the strong coupling αs. They are fundamental constants whose values remain unexplained. Previously we showed that minimizing magic production in charged-lepton scattering reproduces sin2θw with great precision. Here we study magic production in the six flavor-diagonal color-singlet channels qq̅→ qq̅ at tree level, including photon, gluon, W/Z, and Higgs exchange. Varying only αs, with all other inputs fixed at each center-of-mass energy, we find that the finite-αs magic minimum in the top channel reproduces the MS̅ value of αs to within 5% from 1TeV to 109GeV. Higgs exchange involving the large top Yukawa coupling is essential for this agreement. All six channels produce near-minimal magic at the SM couplings, and reducing αs toward α increases their magic production, potentially explaining why the strong interaction is ``strong.'' To understand why minimizing magic reproduces both sin2θw and αs, we conjecture that the parameters of fundamental interactions among color singlets reflect a principle of quantum computational efficiency, with the physical universe emerging from a quantum simulation subject to constrained resources.
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BibTeX
@misc{liu2026quantum,
title = {{Quantum Magic and the Strong Coupling Constant}},
author = {Qiaofeng Liu and Ian Low and Zhewei Yin},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.11121},
eprint = {2610.11121},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.11121},
note = {CC BY-NC-SA 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Quantum Magic and the Strong Coupling Constant
AU - Qiaofeng Liu
AU - Ian Low
AU - Zhewei Yin
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/08
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.11121
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.11121
AB - The three gauge couplings of the Standard Model (SM) can be parameterized as the fine structure constant α, the weak mixing angle sin^2θ_w, and the strong coupling α_s. They are fundamental constants whose values remain unexplained. Previously we showed that minimizing magic production in charged-lepton scattering reproduces sin^2θ_w with great precision. Here we study magic production in the six flavor-diagonal color-singlet channels qq̅→ qq̅ at tree level, including photon, gluon, W/Z, and Higgs exchange. Varying only α_s, with all other inputs fixed at each center-of-mass energy, we find that the finite-α_s magic minimum in the top channel reproduces the MS̅ value of α_s to within 5% from 1TeV to 10^9GeV. Higgs exchange involving the large top Yukawa coupling is essential for this agreement. All six channels produce near-minimal magic at the SM couplings, and reducing α_s toward α increases their magic production, potentially explaining why the strong interaction is ``strong.'' To understand why minimizing magic reproduces both sin^2θ_w and α_s, we conjecture that the parameters of fundamental interactions among color singlets reflect a principle of quantum computational efficiency, with the physical universe emerging from a quantum simulation subject to constrained resources.
ER -