Jun 13 – 17, 2011
Künstlerhaus
Europe/Berlin timezone
Proceedings are now available online at <a href="http://www.slac.stanford.edu/econf/C110613/">eConf</a>

The size of the proton

Jun 13, 2011, 12:00 PM
30m
Festsaal (Künstlerhaus)

Festsaal

Künstlerhaus

talk Plenary Session Plenary Session

Speaker

Randolf Pohl (Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik)

Description

The charge radius Rp of the proton has so far been known only with a precision of about 1% from both electron scattering and precision spectroscopy of hydrogen. We have recently determined Rp by means of laser spectroscopy of the exotic "muonic hydrogen" atom [1]. Here, the muon, which is the 200 times heavier cousin of the electron, orbits the proton with a 200 times smaller Bohr radius. This enhances the sensitivity to the proton's finite size tremendously. Our new value Rp = 0.84184 (67) fm is ten times more precise than the generally accepted CODATA value, but it differs by 5 standard deviations from it. A lively discussion about possible solutions to the "proton size puzzle" has started. [1] R. Pohl, A. Antognini, F. Nez et al. (CREMA collaboration), "The size of the proton", Nature 466, 213 (July 2010)

Primary author

Randolf Pohl (Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik)

Presentation materials