How Parameter-Space Physics Manufactures Infinite Research Programs Without Producing New Physics Alfio M. Bonanno, Emiliano M. Glaviano

The search for hypothetical fth forces has persisted for more than four decades despite the absence of a single conrmed detection. During this period, increas- ingly sophisticated theoretical constructions and increasingly precise experimental programs have continuously explored modications of Newtonian gravity through parametrized Yukawa-type interactions characterized by an interaction strength and a characteristic range. Rather than producing observational evidence for a new fundamental interaction, the eld has progressively evolved into a self-sustaining parameter-space enterprise. Experimental exclusions remove portions of parameter space, while theoretical de- velopments simultaneously generate new admissible regions. As a consequence, neg- ative results do not terminate the research program but instead redene its future objectives. This work analyzes the structural mechanism responsible for this phenomenon. We show that a large fraction of the contemporary fth-force literature does not derive new physical entities from fundamental principles but instead constrains pa- rameters associated with entities that have already been assumed. The distinc- tion between derivation and restriction is examined in detail. Particular attention is devoted to recent approaches based on ultraviolet-complete scalar-tensor grav- ity, which provide a representative example of a broader methodological pattern: the production of increasingly rened admissible domains within an eectively un- bounded parameter landscape. The central thesis advanced here is that the long-term persistence of the fth- force program is not primarily driven by empirical discoveries but by the continual regeneration of theoretical search targets. Under such conditions, the production of parameter-space objectives risks replacing the production of explanatory physical structure. The resulting framework possesses an intrinsic capacity for indenite survival independently of observational success.