The result doubles the precision of all the former experimental measures combined, establishing the most accurate reference value of this parameter within the Standard Model. This improvement will enable a more precise characterisation of the interaction between quarks, having direct implications both in theoretical physics and data interpretation of Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN). At the same time, it will also have an impact on studies on Higgs boson’s precision and on physics researches beyond Standard Model. 

Strong interaction is one of the four fundamental forces of nature, along with electromagnetism, gravity and weak interaction. Just as electrically charged particles exchange photons, and get attracted or repelled by electromagnetism, quarks –which have a type of “charge” called colour– exchange gluons and interact according to strong interaction principles. The strong coupling constant measures the intensity of this interaction. It is a parameter of the Standard Model and it is essential for interpreting experimental results of the LHC, where colliding protons are precisely composed of quarks bound by this interaction.

This force behaves unusually: unlike the others, its intensity increases along with distance. This property forces quarks to remain grouped in colour- neutral charge states –protons, neutrons y other composite particles–, making it impossible to analyse them in isolation. This phenomenon, called colour confinement, makes it difficult not only to study interaction between quarks, but also to precisely determine the strong coupling constant, since it requires modelling how they are trapped within composite particles.

Experiments such as ATLAS and CMS in LHC are able to estimate the value of the constant, but its precision is limited by the uncertainty of confinement models. Currently, the study published in Nature has overcome that obstacle using numerical simulations of strong interactions, reaching an unprecedented precision.

Supercomputing and new methods
This achievement combines massive supercomputing with theoretical techniques specifically developed for this calculation. This synergy between computing power and theoretical refinement enables the highly-precise determination of fundamental interaction between quarks. 

According to Alberto Ramos, “Our research over the past few years has been focused on developing new methods specifically designed to solve these types of problems numerically. Only now, after massive amounts of computation, have we been able to confirm that these methods greatly exceed conventional techniques.”

The result, twice as accurate as the combined experimental results, will serve to analyse LHC data with a new level of precision and to test the Standard Model of particle physics.

The publication
Nature is considered one of the most prestigious scientific journals in the world. It rejects approximately 95% of the articles it receives, and its impact factor is one of the highest, along with Science’s. Theoretical particle physics rarely appears in its pages, showing the importance of this outcome. However, it is not the first time that IFIC has published in the journal: last year it participated in the discovery of the most energetic neutrino ever seen, a landmark that appeared on the journal's front page.

Alberto Ramos underlines that this publication represents “the culmination of many years of developing new analytical techniques, codes, and executing projects on supercomputers. This publication confirms that the results obtained will have implications beyond our theoretical field and possess the potential to impact experimental high-energy physics.”

Reference of the article: Dalla Brida, M., Höllwieser, R., Knechtli, F. et al. "High-precision calculation of the quark–gluon coupling from lattice QCD". Nature 652, 328–334 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10339-4