The strangest non-strange meson is not so strange after all

With its large decay width and huge non-resonant background, the lowest-mass strangeness-zero $\pi \pi$ resonance $f_0(500)$ is rather strange. Since the lightest $\pi N$ resonance $\Delta(1232)$ has an unusually large background too, we analyze these two and a few other meson and baryon resonances, as well as the Z boson, to show that the background is generally smaller the farther the resonance is from the threshold. This result indicates that the $f_0(500)$ has a very large residue phase, a substantially larger Breit-Wigner mass, and that it is a simple Breit-Wigner resonance after all.