Claude Autonomously Cracks Nine-Loop Scattering Amplitude, Setting Physics Record

Anthropic announced on its science blog that Claude has autonomously completed a famous scattering amplitude calculation in theoretical physics, reaching nine-loop precision in the planar N=4 super Yang-Mills test model for the first time and breaking the previous eight-loop record. That record was held by Lance Dixon of SLAC and colleagues, and most peers had considered the problem too hard to attack directly.

Confirmed

• The effort began when physicist Matt von Hippel challenged various AI companies; within a month, Claude pushed the N=4 super Yang-Mills amplitude calculation to nine loops.
• According to @DrSingularity, Claude ran unattended for several days, used established physics methods, wrote the necessary code from scratch, and completed the computation in two different ways with cross-validation.
• Physicist Kyle Cranmer said his team's related work was scooped by Anthropic's release.
• Scattering amplitudes are core formulas theoretical physicists use to predict particle behavior, notorious for their difficulty; researchers typically improve precision by adding corrections loop by loop.

Why it matters

• This is a landmark case of AI achieving a breakthrough computation at the frontier of theoretical physics, widely cited as evidence that AI can conduct long-horizon autonomous research.
• For the physics community, being scooped by AI has sparked discussion about research pace and AI collaboration models, as reflected in Kyle Cranmer's reaction.

2026-09-26 ~ 2026-09-26 · 7 related posts

• [source] Anthropic: Claude solves nine-loop scattering amplitudes, breaking the eight-loop record — AnthropicAI · 2026-09-26
• Anthropic says Claude can compute notoriously hard Nine Loops physics amplitudes — daniel_mac8 · 2026-09-26
• [source] Scooped by a Machine: Claude Computes N=4 Super Yang-Mills to Nine Loops — KyleCranmer · 2026-09-26
• Claude one-shots a nine-loop scattering amplitude, a frontier physics calculation — Dr_Singularity · 2026-09-26

3 near-duplicate retellings: Dr_Singularity · rohanpaul_ai · kevinweil