The Rydberg constant and proton size from atomic hydrogen.
basic_science · Level V
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- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 28983046.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1126/science.aah6677.
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Abstract
At the core of the "proton radius puzzle" is a four-standard deviation discrepancy between the proton root-mean-square charge radii (<i>r</i><sub>p</sub>) determined from the regular hydrogen (H) and the muonic hydrogen (µp) atoms. Using a cryogenic beam of H atoms, we measured the 2S-4P transition frequency in H, yielding the values of the Rydberg constant <i>R</i><sub>∞</sub> = 10973731.568076(96) per meterand <i>r</i><sub>p</sub> = 0.8335(95) femtometer. Our <i>r</i><sub>p</sub> value is 3.3 combined standard deviations smaller than the previous H world data, but in good agreement with the µp value. We motivate an asymmetric fit function, which eliminates line shifts from quantum interference of neighboring atomic resonances.