BACKGROUND

In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, 'Ant-Man' is the alias of the superhero Scott Lang. He has the power to shrink or enlarge objects (including himself) using fictional 'Pym particles.' In the second Ant-Man film, "Ant-Man and the Wasp," we see that Scott is able to shrink down into the Quantum Realm, a hidden layer of reality that is only accessible to the smallest of organisms. But is it actually possible to shrink objects? In short: no. We don't have Pym particles in our world. That being said, the scientific consultant on the film, physicist Michalakis Spiros, did propose a highly-theoretical way that shrinking could be achieved. Spiros noted that the electrons in each atom could be replaced with another particle that has the exact same charge but a much greater mass: the muon. Electrons and muons have many of the same properties, according to the Standard Model of particle physics, the theory that describes how all fundamental particles interact. Crucially, electrons and muons both have a negative charge, so they could be swapped without affecting the chemical composition of any atoms. But because the muon is much heavier, it would be drawn closer into the atom, shrinking the atom's size by up to 200 times.
For our second post, we explained the science behind Ant-Man's powers. We chose this topic for two reasons. First, we believed that we could make the physics of this more interesting by connecting it to a popular film series our audience would likely be familiar with. The superhero connection also gave our posts a distinct 'cool factor' that would help with engagement. Secondly, we realized we could springboard off a discussion of the Quantum Realm to highlight other interesting phenomena in quantum physics.