In 1937, Carl Anderson discovered something that shouldn't exist: a particle 207 times heavier than an electron, appearing in cosmic ray showers high in the atmosphere. He called it the muon. It would become one of physics' most important particles—and the namesake of our company.
The Particle That Proved Einstein Right
Here's the puzzle that made muons famous: they're created when cosmic rays strike the upper atmosphere, about 10 kilometres above the Earth's surface. But muons are unstable—they decay in about 2.2 microseconds. Even travelling at 98% the speed of light, they should only cover about 660 metres before decaying.
By classical physics, almost no muons should reach the ground. Yet we're bathed in them—about 10,000 muons pass through each square metre of Earth's surface every minute.
The resolution? Einstein's special relativity.
From our perspective on Earth, time dilation stretches the muon's brief lifetime. A muon travelling at 0.98c experiences time roughly five times slower than a stationary observer. Its 2.2 microsecond lifetime extends to about 11 microseconds in our reference frame—enough time to travel the 10 kilometres to Earth's surface.
From the muon's perspective, something equally strange happens: length contraction compresses the 10 kilometre journey to about 2 kilometres. The muon lives its normal 2.2 microseconds and still reaches the ground.
Both explanations are correct. Both are necessary. The muon's very existence on Earth's surface is proof that space and time work differently than our intuition suggests.
Why This Matters to Us
We didn't name our company Muon Group because we build particle accelerators. We named it for what the muon represents:
Travelling further than expected. Muons shouldn't reach the ground, but they do. We back founders building in sectors where conventional wisdom says they can't succeed. Critical infrastructure. Air-gapped environments. Complex Australian regulatory contexts. The experts say these markets are too hard. We've seen that with the right approach, you can go much further than expected.
Proof through observation. The muon experiment required careful measurement of what was already happening in nature. We build from observation of real operational environments—grounded in how industries actually work.
Different frames of reference. The muon story only makes sense when you accept that observers in different reference frames experience reality differently—and both are correct. In our work, we find that operators and investors often see the same situation completely differently. Both perspectives are valid. Good investing requires understanding both frames.
The power of fundamentals. Muon physics works because the fundamental laws of relativity work. No exceptions, no special cases. We build companies around fundamental principles—domain expertise, Australian-native design, operator-led teams—because we believe getting the fundamentals right creates outcomes that compound over time.
A Name Worth Explaining
Most company names are either generic ("Acme Solutions") or obscure references that no one asks about. We chose a name that occasionally requires explanation—because the explanation itself captures what we're trying to do.
We're building companies that travel further than conventional wisdom suggests is possible. We're operating in reference frames that look different from the mainstream venture perspective. We're betting on fundamentals over hype.
Like the muon, we're one of the less obvious particles. And we're everywhere, passing through the industries that matter, proving through observation that you can go further than conventional limits suggest.