English

The Proton Radius Puzzle

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2015-05-20 v1 Atomic Physics

Abstract

The proton size, specifically its charge radius, was thought known to about 1% accuracy. Now a new method probing the proton with muons instead of electrons finds a radius about 4% smaller, and to boot gives an uncertainty limit of about 0.1%. We review the different measurements, some of the calculations that underlie them, some of the suggestions that have been made to resolve the conflict, and give a brief overview new related experimental initiatives. At present, however, the resolution to the problem remains unknown.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1502.05314,
  title  = {The Proton Radius Puzzle},
  author = {Carl E. Carlson},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1502.05314},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

Accepted invited review for Progress in Particle and Nuclear Physics. 28 pages, 15 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-22T08:32:33.145Z