science

Although the theory is promising, the duo point out that they have not yet completed its proof. The theory uses a technical procedure known as renormalization, a mathematical way of dealing with infinities that show up in the calculations.

So far Partanen and Tulkki have shown that this works up to a certain point—for so-called 'first order' terms—but they need to make sure the infinities can be eliminated throughout the entire calculation.

"If renormalization doesn't work for higher order terms, you'll get infinite results. So it's vital to show that this renormalization continues to work," explains Tulkki. "We still have to make a complete proof, but we believe it's very likely we'll succeed."