Great Country Academician

Compared with the excitement and madness of the group members, Xu Chuan was much calmer.

This value is indeed somewhat beyond his expectations, and it can even be said to have created history.

But he has also experienced strong winds and waves, so he will not yell with excitement like other group members.

Moreover, the number of 0.831 femtometers is not necessarily recognized by the physics community.

The Proton Radius Puzzle This problem is not so easy to solve.

If it is in the world of mathematics, when a problem has a solution and an answer, as long as the solution and answer are confirmed to be correct, then the problem can be declared completely solved.

But not in physics, at least not when it comes to such hugely controversial issues.

An answer calculated and verified by experiments is not so safe and convincing.

If you want the physics community to fully accept this number, you need at least another completely different measurement method to get the same, or a very similar number.

Two sets of experiments with completely different methods obtained the same set of data, and it needs to be reproduced, so as to ensure the accuracy of the proton radius.

A single set of experiments doesn't tell much.

But now, as insane as the group members are, they have now indeed set a new record.

The particle physics community would be stunned by the answer.

Xu Chuan can guarantee that his atomic charge radius experiment is completely reproducible.

As long as there is no problem with the data analysis work, then the radius of 0.831 femtometer will be locked on the hydrogen atom, and may even become the universal radius in the future physics world.

After the excitement of the team members subsided, Xu Chuan started to rearrange the work.

They need to double-check the previous experimental analysis data to ensure that all the data are normal and there are no problems.

This is an important step.

Only when he repeatedly confirmed that there was no problem with the experimental analysis data, he would make an announcement publicly. Otherwise, standing at the press conference and announcing a wrong data to the outside would make them a joke.

The detailed inspection work began. This time, Xu Chuan personally passed the overall analysis data.

On the whole, there is no problem, but Nunnally Kessler's graviton and proton scattering physical image analysis data caught his attention.

In this analysis data, there appeared a seemingly 'abnormal' data calculation.

"When the electron beam touches the hydrogen molecular cloud and is excited to the 3S state, the energy level data seems to exceed the previous experiments by a lot?"

In front of the display screen, Xu Chuan touched his chin and stared at the calculation data on it.

After his rebirth, his sensitivity to various numbers seemed to have improved a lot, and he found the problematic part from this calculation data at a glance.

After thinking for a while, Xu Chuan opened his notebook and dug out the experimental data of the previous proton radius measurement from the computer.

A simple comparison shows that, in this acceleration experiment, when the electron beam touches the hydrogen molecular cloud and is excited to the 3S state, the energy level data is 1.7 higher.

This value is not very large, but it will definitely affect the final value of the radius of the proton.

"Is there a situation?"

A question mark floated in his mind. Xu Chuan found the original data and began to analyze it himself.

It didn't take long to analyze only a small part of the experimental data. In less than a quarter of an hour, he completed the analysis of this part of the original data.

There is nothing wrong with Nunnally Kessler's work, and the parsed data is exactly the same as his repeated verification.

"It's strange, why in this collision experiment, the energy level of the electron beam is 1.7 higher than that of the historical collision experiment when it touches the hydrogen molecular cloud and excites it to the 3S state?"

"Is it affected by something?"

After completing the analysis of three historical experimental data and four current experimental data, Xu Chuan confirmed that there is a difference in this value.

When the electron beam touches the hydrogen molecular cloud and excites it to the 3S state, the energy level is 1.7~1.8 energy levels higher than that of the historical collision experiment.

Although this difference is not very big, it does exist, and when it is brought into the subsequent calculation, it does interfere with the radius of the proton, and the number is about 0.025 to 0.03 femtometer.

"Is it caused by the interference caused by the collision of the metal container with the electron hydrogen atom?"

Immediately, Xu Chuan thought of the difference between his experiment and other historical experiments.

If there is any difference between his experiment this time and previous atomic charge radius experiments, the only difference is that he used CERN's more advanced proton accelerator to cancel the metal container used to store hydrogen atom clouds in the past, and directly put the hydrogen The atomic cloud is imported into the accelerator's observation pipeline.

After all, after the high-energy electron beam enters the metal, it will react with the metal atoms, and its scattering will cause certain interference to the experimental data.

However, judging from the previous experimental data, this interference is not very strong, so the previous experiments almost ignored this piece of interference.

But now, Xu Chuan's keen scientific intuition and data intuition told him that perhaps this part of the scattering interference is stronger than the previous cognition in the physics community.

He may have inadvertently found the mystery of the proton radius, why the proton radius obtained by the traditional electron-proton scattering atomic charge radius experiment has always been 0.87 femtometers.

Thinking of this, Xu Chuan's eyes suddenly brightened.

In the traditional electron proton scattering atomic charge radius experiment, the test of the hydrogen atom cloud is indeed done through a metal container, which may really have some problems.

But to make a determination, you need to use data to speak.

This is not very difficult for him, and it can be done through the data of this atomic charge radius experiment and another kind of "energy spectrum measurement experiment of hydrogen-like atoms".

The reliability of the three types of experimental data is quite high in comparison.

If it can be confirmed that the metal container caused scattering interference to the high-energy electron beam, then the mystery of the proton radius, one of the hottest problems in the current physics world, can be solved.

After taking a deep breath and suppressing his beating heart, Xu Chuan carefully calculated the data in his hand again.

There is no problem with the calculation. Judging from the eight pieces of data he completed the analysis, when the electron beam touches the hydrogen molecular cloud and excites it to the 3S state, the energy level is indeed 1.7-1.8 energy levels higher than that of the historical collision experiment. class.

This may be due to the scattering interference caused by the test of the hydrogen atom cloud through the metal container, and it may also be the reason why the charge radius of the proton deviates and the two groups of values ​​differ greatly.

After finding the cause of the possible problem, the rest is to prove it with data.

But for now, this is not the most important thing.

What he has to do now is to complete the inspection of the experimental data of the atomic charge radius.

Then submit the acceptance report to CERN.

This is what should be done now.

As for the reason just found out, it doesn't matter to do it after submitting the report.

At CERN, it is necessary to apply in advance to hold a press conference.

For example, this kind of application for completing the experiment and submitting the acceptance report needs to be applied at least three days in advance.

So that CERN can set aside enough time to arrange "acceptance personnel", and publish lecture information at the same time, so that interested physicists can come and listen to the lecture.

After confirming that there is no problem with the experimental analysis data and that the calculated proton radius data is accurate, Xu Chuan submitted an application to CERN for holding a press conference.

After submitting the application materials, CERN's review team completed the review the next morning and arranged the press conference three days later.

As for the three days, Xu Chuan needs to prepare the report materials carefully, think about the various problems that may arise in the report meeting, and dig out the data of the historical atomic charge radius experiment to confirm that the metal container caused the scattering of the high-energy electron beam Interference, whether it will cause a large enough deviation in the radius of the proton.

This is his time and task arrangement for these three days.

But before that, he had one more thing to do.

That is to report this result to his mentor.

His mentor, Witten, has not returned to the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton until now, and has been staying in the hotel waiting for his experiment to be completed.

With the printed information, Xu Chuan took the elevator to the third floor.

Witten lives here.

Knocking on the door, a voice of "please come in" came from inside. Xu Chuan pushed the door open and walked in. In the room, Wei Teng was sitting at the wooden table talking with another old man.

Hearing the movement, Wei Teng and the old man looked up at the same time.

"tutor."

Xu Chuan yelled, and then greeted the old man beside him: "Professor Frank, hello."

"You know me?" Frank Wilczek asked curiously at the wooden table.

Xu Chuan said with a smile: "Your outstanding achievements in the theory of quark particles and the theory of strong interaction are well known."

"I have read your books "The Lightness of Being" and "Wonderful Reality: The Real, Wonderful World of Physics" and other books."

Frank Wilczek said with a smile: "That's just something for ordinary people to read. An outstanding young man like you should learn knowledge from top journals or papers."

Hearing this, Xu Chuan smiled.

This is probably one of the old professor's greatest hobbies in his life.

He likes to communicate with other scholars, and also likes to give advice to others, especially young scholars, which makes him many friends, but many people hate him, thinking that he likes to be a good teacher.

But on the whole, most people will seriously think about the advice of a Nobel laureate.

In addition, another hobby of this old professor is publishing books.

He has written many popular science books on physics, such as "The Lightness of Being", "Wonderful Reality: The Real and Wonderful Physical World", "Beautiful Questions: The Grand Design of Everything in the Universe", "Principles of Everything", etc. He is an outstanding science popularizer. writer.

After saying hello to Wilczek, Xu Chuan took the backpack from behind, took out a stack of printing paper from inside, and handed it to his mentor Wei Teng.

"Teacher, the data of the experiment on the mystery of the proton radius has been analyzed, and we have obtained a brand new proton radius value, and it is smaller than the previous proton radius."

"New proton radius data?"

Hearing Xu Chuan's words, Edward Witten frowned, and took the document from Xu Chuan curiously.

"0.831×10-15m±0.0016 femtometer."

"It is indeed completely different from the previous measurement data, but the method used by CERN this time seems to be different from the previous measurement method. Did you design and improve it?"

Flipping through the information in his hand, Wei Teng raised his head interested and asked.

He is more interested in the improved measurement method used by CERN than in a completely new proton radius.

Xu Chuan nodded and said: "It is true that some experimental procedures have been optimized. Theoretically speaking, the metal container used in the original method will cause certain interference to the collision of electrons and hydrogen atoms, and this will cause the observed data to be distorted. .”

"So on this basis, I asked CERN staff to directly inject hydrogen atoms into the acceleration pipeline, avoiding this part of the interference, and getting more accurate collision data."

"However, the limitations of this method are also very large, and it requires a more powerful accelerator to complete it,"

Wei Teng thought for a while, and said: "This can indeed optimize the entire experimental process, but theoretically speaking, it should not be able to optimize the degree to the point where the radius of the proton can be further reduced. What else is there in your experiment?" Improve?"

Xu Chuan shook his head and said, "No, the further decrease in the radius of the proton may indeed have something to do with the method used in this acceleration experiment."

Hearing this, Wei Teng raised his eyelids and stared at Xu Chuan.

He was keenly aware that his student might have discovered something.

Stared at by his mentor, Xu Chuan took out a stack of manuscript paper from his backpack again, and handed it over: "This is my new discovery yesterday."

"After optimizing and improving the atomic charge radius experiment and removing the experimental device using a metal container as a hydrogen atom cloud, I found that when the high-energy electron beam contacts the hydrogen molecular cloud and is excited to the 3S state, the energy level data is better than that of other laboratories. The experimental energy level of the atomic charge radius is about 1.7~1.8 higher."

"And I happen to have the data of the 'traditional electron proton scattering atomic charge radius experiment' and the 'hydrogen-like atom energy spectrum measurement experiment' downloaded during the data analysis."

"Through preliminary analysis, I found that 'traditional electron proton scattering atomic charge radius experiments' almost all use metal containers as experimental devices for hydrogen atom clouds. During the experiment, the high-energy electron beam will react with the metal container, resulting in Scatter interference."

"And this part of the scattering interference may be far beyond our previous knowledge."

"Perhaps this problem is the culprit in the mystery of the proton radius."

Xu Chuan briefly stated his thoughts and discoveries, and then waited quietly.

After Wei Teng finished the manuscript paper, he carefully read it.

After a while, he suddenly raised his head and said, "Give me a pen and paper, please."

He was attracted by Xu Chuan's calculations and discoveries. Judging from the analysis data on the manuscript paper, the answer might indeed be this.