Detect tremors on the new size of protons

Scientists were surprised to find that protons are much smaller in size than the ones used and mentioned in previous physical studies. This new finding promises to create shocks in the physical world.

New discoveries about the size of protons can change the physics industry.Photo: NatGeo.

All atoms are made up of electrons around the nucleus. The nuclei are in turn made up of two basic types of neutrons and protons. For a long time, protons known with a radius of 0.8768 fm (femtometer).

The radius of the proton is defined as the distance at which the charge density decreases below a certain value. That radius is measured by either scattering electrons from hydrogen or observing the difference between certain energy levels of hydrogen atoms (also called Lamb shift).

The size of protons is an important value in quantum electrodynamics (often called QED theory), the fundamental foundation of particle physics and natural particle research.

However, the present value of the proton is only accurate when adding or subtracting one percent rather than reaching the accuracy to be able to give a perfect result in quantum electrodynamics. So physicists have been looking for different ways to refine this size.

The microscopic size of the proton is detected by a laser beam

In the experiment conducted over 10 years, the team of the Max-Planck Quantum Optics Institute in Garching, Germany, headed by Randolf Pohl researcher used a particle accelerator to alter the integers. hydrogen. From there, creating a single proton orbiting it is an electron.

For each hydrogen atom, the researchers replaced an electron with one muon with a size 200 times larger than an electron.

"Because the muon is heavier, its orbit is very close to the protons. Therefore, it is more sensitive to the size of the protons," said Aldo Antognini, a member of the Paul-Institut research team. Scherrer in Switzerland said.

Muons are not strong, they split into other particles in just 2.2 microseconds. The team knew that firing lasers before the splitting muon would cause the muon to move with a higher orbit, around the proton.

The muon will then emit a strong energy, X-rays, and then transfer it to a lower energy level. However, when based on the generally accepted radius of protons, the experiments failed to produce X-rays at the predicted frequencies.

In the summer of 2009, researchers decided to experiment on different sizes of protons. And surprisingly, they discovered X-rays in an experiment with a hypothetical proton radius of 0.8418 fm, less than 4% of the previously mentioned size. "We were really surprised and didn't have any explanation at the moment," said Antognini .

The new size of the proton will be a scientific shock

Detecting the size of the proton smaller than the previous figure will not have too much impact on people's immediate lives. However, if this finding is proven correct, it means that there will be fundamental errors in physics.

The smaller Proton means the Rydberg constant is incorrect. Or if the Rydberg constant is correct, then the smaller proton means that the equations in QED theory are not correct.

"It is a shock and will probably evoke completely new thoughts about QED, paving the way for a new theory," said Jeff Flowers, the UK National Physics Laboratory.

In the coming time, physicists all over the world will conduct a check and review the establishment of experimental, test and calculation studies to ensure that there are no errors in these studies. If the process does not find the error of the test, the scientists will work to rebuild the standard size of the proton.

Source: National & Physicsworld