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I don't think that renormalization has much to do with this! :P

It's enough to say that the standard model has to have some input from the real world -- mostly the masses of the particles and their mixing angles. Renormalization just makes it harder to talk about what a particle's mass "really" is; it doesn't really increase the number of parameters in the theory.



Renormalisation, however, does suggest that coupling constants[0] change with the energy level involved, which then leads to the nice idea that, given an appropriate theory, one could make all these runnings match at a certain energy and then get a grand unified theory (of the strong and electroweak force) which breaks down at lower energies and leads to our three different coupling constants of the gauge groups[1].

[0] Effectively the basic rate of things happening per particle/energy/volume of spacetime etc., originally assumed to be constant. [1] Effectively things happening faster for certain types of interactions (electromagnetic vs. weak vs. strong).


Oops, you're right.




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