# Koide formula

The Koide formula is an unexplained empirical equation discovered by Yoshio Koide in 1981. In its original form, it relates the masses of the three charged leptons; later authors have extended the relation to neutrinos, quarks, and other families of particles.

## Formula

The Koide formula is

${\displaystyle Q={\frac {m_{e}+m_{\mu }+m_{\tau }}{{\big (}{\sqrt {m_{e}}}+{\sqrt {m_{\mu }}}+{\sqrt {m_{\tau }}}{\big )}^{2}}}\approx 0.6666617\approx {\frac {2}{3}},}$

where the masses of the electron, muon, and tau are measured respectively as me = 0.510998946(3) MeV/c2, mμ = 105.6583745(24) MeV/c2, and mτ = 1776.86(12) MeV/c2, and the digits in parentheses are the uncertainties in the last figures.[1] This gives Q = 0.666661(7).[2]

It is clear that 13 < Q < 1. The superior bound follows if we assume that the square roots cannot be negative. By Cauchy–Schwarz inequality, the value ${\displaystyle {\frac {1}{3Q}}}$  can be interpreted as the squared cosine of the angle between the vector ${\displaystyle ({\sqrt {m_{e}}},{\sqrt {m_{\mu }}},{\sqrt {m_{\tau }}})}$  and the vector ${\displaystyle (1,1,1)}$  (see dot product).

The mystery is in the physical value. Not only is this result odd in that three apparently random numbers should give a simple fraction, but also that Q is exactly halfway between the two extremes of ​13 (should the three masses be equal) and 1 (should one mass dominate).

While the original formula appeared in the context of preon models, other ways have been found to produce it (both by Sumino and by Koide, see references below). As a whole, however, understanding remains incomplete. Similar matches have been found for triplets of quarks depending on running masses.[3][4][5] With alternating quarks, chaining Koide equations for consecutive triplets, it is possible to reach a result of 173.263947(6) GeV for the mass of the top quark.[6]

## Similar formulae in literature

There are similar empirical formulae which relate other masses. Quark masses depend on the energy scale used to measure them, which makes an analysis more complicated.

Taking the heaviest three quarks, charm (1290 MeV), bottom (4180 MeV) and top (172440 MeV), gives the value[7]

${\displaystyle Q_{\text{heavy}}={\frac {m_{c}+m_{b}+m_{t}}{{\big (}{\sqrt {m_{c}}}+{\sqrt {m_{b}}}+{\sqrt {m_{t}}}{\big )}^{2}}}\approx 0.668\approx {\frac {2}{3}}.}$

The possibility that Q equals exactly 2/3 lies within the experimental uncertainties of the masses (as of 2015[citation needed]). This was noticed by Rodejohann and Zhang in the first version of their 2011 article[8] but the observation was removed in the published version,[9] so the first published mention is in 2012 from F. G. Cao.[7]

However, the masses of the lightest quarks, up (2.3 MeV), down (4.8 MeV), and strange (95 MeV) yield

${\displaystyle Q_{\text{light}}={\frac {m_{u}+m_{d}+m_{s}}{{\big (}{\sqrt {m_{u}}}+{\sqrt {m_{d}}}+{\sqrt {m_{s}}}{\big )}^{2}}}\approx 0.56,}$

a value also cited by Cao.[7]

## Running of particle masses

In quantum field theory, quantities like coupling constant and mass "run" with the energy scale. That is, their value depends on the energy scale at which the observation occurs, in a way described by a renormalization group equation (RGE). One usually expects relationships between such quantities to be simple at high energies (where some symmetry is unbroken) but not at low energies, where the RG flow will have produced complicated deviations from the high-energy relation. The Koide relation is exact (within experimental error) for the pole masses, which are low-energy quantities defined at different energy scales. For this reason, many physicists regard the relation as "numerology" (e.g.[10]). However, the Japanese physicist Yukinari Sumino has constructed an effective field theory in which a new gauge symmetry causes the pole masses to exactly satisfy the relation.[11] Goffinet's doctoral thesis gives a discussion on pole masses and how the Koide formula can be reformulated without taking the square roots of masses.[12]

## References

1. ^ Amsler, C.; et al. (Particle Data Group) (2008). "Review of Particle Physics". Physics Letters B. 667 (1–5): 1–6. Bibcode:2008PhLB..667....1A. doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2008.07.018.
2. ^ Since the uncertainties in me and mμ are much smaller than that in mτ, the uncertainty in Q was calculated as ${\displaystyle \Delta Q={\frac {\partial Q}{\partial m_{\tau }}}\Delta m_{\tau }}$ .
3. ^ Rodejohann, W.; Zhang, H. (2011). "Extension of an empirical charged lepton mass relation to the neutrino sector". Physics Letters B. 698 (2): 152–156. arXiv:1101.5525. Bibcode:2011PhLB..698..152R. doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2011.03.007.
4. ^ Rosen, G. (2007). "Heuristic development of a Dirac-Goldhaber model for lepton and quark structure" (PDF). Modern Physics Letters A. 22 (4): 283–288. Bibcode:2007MPLA...22..283R. doi:10.1142/S0217732307022621.
5. ^ Kartavtsev, A. (2011). "A remark on the Koide relation for quarks". arXiv:1111.0480 [hep-ph].
6. ^ Rivero, A. (2011). "A new Koide tuple: Strange-charm-bottom". arXiv:1111.7232 [hep-ph].
7. ^ a b c Cao, F. G. (2012). "Neutrino masses from lepton and quark mass relations and neutrino oscillations". Physical Review D. 85 (11): 113003. arXiv:1205.4068. Bibcode:2012PhRvD..85k3003C. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.85.113003.
8. ^ Rodejohann, W.; Zhang, H. (2011). "Extension of an empirical charged lepton mass relation to the neutrino sector". arXiv:1101.5525 [hep-ph].
9. ^ Rodejohann, W.; Zhang, H. (2011). "Extension of an empirical charged lepton mass relation to the neutrino sector". Physics Letters B. 698 (2): 152–156. arXiv:1101.5525. Bibcode:2011PhLB..698..152R. doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2011.03.007.
10. ^ Motl, L. (16 January 2012). "Could the Koide formula be real?". The Reference Frame. Retrieved 2014-07-10.
11. ^ Sumino, Y. (2009). "Family Gauge Symmetry as an Origin of Koide's Mass Formula and Charged Lepton Spectrum". Journal of High Energy Physics. 2009 (5): 75. arXiv:0812.2103. Bibcode:2009JHEP...05..075S. doi:10.1088/1126-6708/2009/05/075.
12. ^ Goffinet, F. (2008). A bottom-up approach to fermion masses (PDF) (PhD Thesis). Université catholique de Louvain.