proton charge radius from electron scattering

Advances in theory are mandatory to guide, to interpret and to model experiments. It will provide the ideal framework to develop synergies, to draw common strategies and to enhance constructive collaborative theoretical and experimental research activities in order to converge together in attempting to solve the proton charge radius puzzle.īesides, it will offer an environment of excellence for the training of students and young scientists in fields as diverse as atomic spectroscopy and lepton scattering, both in experiment and theory. The network proposed here constitutes the critically missing forum between atomic spectroscopy and lepton scattering communities. The international effort on this matter concerns several leading groups in Europe. It combines atomic spectroscopy and lepton scattering, each involving both electrons and muons. This motivates a reinforced world-wide effort, both experimental and theoretical. None of these are however widely accepted. Many ideas have been put forward to explain this striking discrepancy, such as incorrect radius extraction from scattering data, inaccurate hadronic corrections, or new physics effects such as lepton nonuniversality which would imply physics beyond the Standard Model. The 2017 NuPECC Long Range Plan (LRP) thus calls for a dedicated, cross-disciplinary program involving experimental hadron and atomic physics, supported by renewed efforts in hadron and particle theory, as well as lattice QCD (LRP, page 62). This so-called “proton radius puzzle” (PRP) has sparked great activity in both experiment and theory. Within the Standard Model, which assumes lepton universality, both probes must yield the same radius. In 2010, however, a measurement of Rp using the exotic “muonic hydrogen atom”, resulted in a 10 times more accurate, but a 4% (corresponding to 5 standard deviations) smaller radius: Rp = 0.84 fm. Two independent methods, elastic electron-proton scattering, and precision spectroscopy of atomic hydrogen yielded consistent results. the root-mean-square (rms) charge radius of the proton (Rp) has for years been believed to be about 0.88 fm, with 1% uncertainty. The proton is the primary building block of the visible Universe, but some of its most elementary properties are not well understood.

Proton charge radius from electron scattering