A tiny discrepancy in particle physics has loomed for decades as an exciting possible crack in one of science’s most successful theories, hinting at unknown forces or quantum objects. Now, an international team led by a Penn State physicist has published the most precise study yet to reveal the discrepancy was a fluke in calculation, not nature.

More than half a century of measurements of a fundamental property of the muon—the more massive, short-lived cousin of the electron—did not line up with theoretical predictions, raising hopes that new physics might be behind the unexplained inconsistency.

In a paper published in the journal Nature, a team led by a Penn State researcher describes one of the most precise calculations ever performed in particle physics, showing that the Standard Model—the theory describing the known building blocks of matter—still holds.