Great Country Academician

In the venue of CERN, Xu Chuan put on a suit and walked onto the podium from the aisle next to him.

In the No. 1 lecture hall, the audience was crowded, and there were about two or three hundred people sitting there. Among them are little-known little people, and there are also big names in academia.

This is not inferior to the exchange meeting where he reported the Weyl-Berry conjecture at Princeton University.

After all, this is CERN, which gathers nearly half of the world's top theoretical physicists and high-energy physicists.

In the venue at the moment, there are more than three Nobel Prize winners in physics alone, not to mention winners of Einstein Prize, Dirac Medal, Hertz Prize, Wolf Prize in Physics and other famous physics prize winners.

On the podium, Xu Chuan tried the microphone, and after confirming that there was no problem, he cleared his throat and said:

"It's a great honor for everyone to come to today's report meeting. The theme of today's report meeting is a calculation method for the radius of the proton and a report on the experimental data of the atomic charge radius."

As he said that, Xu Chuan inserted the USB flash drive in his hand into the computer, controlled the equipment in front of him, turned on the screen projection, projected the PPT, and then began to speak and report.

In order to allow some time for a report on the solution to the mystery of the proton radius, Xu Chuan compressed the original report time.

The 45-minute report, 30-minute speaking time, and 15-minute questioning time were all compressed into 15 minutes by him to complete a calculation method of the proton radius and report on the experimental data of the atomic charge radius.

After briefly reporting the work he had done at CERN for nearly a month, Xu Chuan looked at the audience under the podium.

"A calculation method for the proton radius and the report of the experimental data of the atomic charge radius. The basic situation is like this. The experimental analysis data has been submitted to the CERN organization. CERN will arrange people to conduct a careful calculation. Do you have any questions?"

Under the podium, in the venue, an arm was raised.

Xu Chuan looked around, and the one who raised his hand was a somewhat slovenly old man.

Seeing this person, Xu Chuan immediately remembered the words of that senior brother Qi Xishao.

Rich Flick will not let him go.

This stubborn partisan in the particle physics community has always believed that the large proton radius is the truth.

Sure enough, here he is now.

He stands here today, raising his own doubts about the small proton radius.

This is a stubborn old man, even if Xu Chuan has enough confidence in his work, he can't help but feel a little headache.

After all, the other party is not a fake professor. On the contrary, the other party has won the Wolf Prize in Physics, which is one of the highest honors in the physics world after the Nobel Prize in Physics.

But since the other party has already raised his hand to ask questions, it is impossible to avoid it.

After reaching out his hand to signal the other party to ask questions, Xu Chuan looked at the slovenly old man.

"I observed that in the reporter's demonstration data, on the ninth page, the incomplete QED value of the hydrogen atom's energy level has been corrected through the energy level formula. Will this affect the final proton radius value? ? Ask the reporter to discuss."

Rich Flick stared at Xu Chuan and said word by word.

"Page 9." Xu Chuan flipped through the proof data and found what Rich Flick knew.

"This correction comes from the high-speed moving electrons will cause more or less displacement of the proton, which will affect the radius measurement of the proton, so it needs to be corrected."

Before Xu Chuan could finish speaking, he was interrupted by Rich Flick.

"Of course I know this, but according to the historical proton radius experiment data, the traditional QED data correction range is only limited to about 0.0012~0.0021, but your corrected QED number is much higher than this."

Hearing what Rich Frick said, other physicists in the venue immediately focused their attention on this part of the analysis data.

"As expected of Rich Flick, this question hits the nail on the head."

"This is indeed a problem, but the problem is not very serious. It is enough to bring the correction parameters into the calculation again, but the value of the radius of the proton may need to be adjusted."

"Perhaps, as the stubborn old man Rishi thinks, the big proton radius is the truth?"

"I always feel that there is something wrong with this. The correction of this value is too outrageous. It is unlikely that this young reporter will make such a mistake. After all, he has solved a world-class conjecture and his ability in mathematics is very good."

On the podium, Xu Chuan's face didn't change much, and he even showed a slight smile.

This smile stunned Rich Flick who was standing in the venue waiting for an answer. He didn't understand why he could still laugh when faced with a fatal question.

"Professor Rich's question is very meaningful. My correction of the incomplete QED value of the hydrogen atom's energy level is indeed beyond the previous value, but I will prove it to you, why I did this."

Xu Chuan smiled, stretched out his hand to manipulate the computer on the podium, turned off the projected PPT report, and reopened a piece of demonstration data.

"Please look here. In the next time, please allow me to temporarily change, or add to the report content."

In the venue, after hearing Xu Chuan's words to change the content of the report, everyone became a little commotion.

The staff including CERN frowned slightly, not knowing what the young reporter was doing.

"For a long time, we have mainly relied on two methods to measure the charge radius of protons."

"One is the energy spectrometry of hydrogen-like atoms, and the other is the proton scattering experiment of electrons."

"In the past, we used these two methods to obtain a relatively accurate proton radius data. 0.87 femtometers, this is the number we have been using in the past, and it was accepted until 2010."

"But in 2010, physicists at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics used meson hydrogen, replacing the electron orbiting the nucleus with a meson, and got an even smaller number, 0.841 femtometer."

"This is the origin of the mystery of the proton radius. I won't go into details on this point. Everyone sitting here must know something about it."

"Fundamentally, we'd love to understand what all the laws of physics are, and if there's a discrepancy that no one can explain, there's a risk of never understanding the laws of physics."

"But today, I'm here to explain the issues that make this difference."

As soon as these words came out, there was an uproar in the venue.

Explain the problem of proton radius puzzle? Did he find the problem?

How can this be? The joint efforts of countless physicists over the past few years have yielded no results. If it is really so easy to solve, will this problem remain until today?

In the audience, Cao Hongyuan from the University of Science and Technology of China was stunned for a moment after hearing Xu Chuan's words.

He originally thought that today's report would end after a calculation method for the proton radius and the experimental data of the atomic charge radius were reported.

Unexpectedly, the appearance of the bad old man Rich Flick directly brought the situation to another aspect.

Solving the Proton Radius Mystery. Can this really be done?

Did you really find the problem, or did you forcibly fabricate a theory in response to Rich Fricker's question?

Thinking about it, he turned his head and looked at Chen Zhengping who was sitting beside him.

As the mentor of the young man on stage, he should know something in advance, right?

But what was surprising was that Chen Zhengping's expression was almost exactly the same as his previous one, full of doubts, surprises, and even a hint of worry.

It seemed that the sudden situation also exceeded his expectations.

In the entire venue, the only ones who could keep calm were Edward Witt, Frank Wilczek, and Xu Chuan's project team who knew the information in advance.

Xu Chuan ignored the commotion in the audience and continued with his report.

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"The traditional 'electron proton scattering atomic charge radius experiment' used a metal container as the experimental device for the hydrogen atom cloud due to the limitations of the equipment. After the high-energy electron beam enters the experimental equipment, when it collides with the hydrogen atom cloud, Scatter interference with metals."

"From previous experiments, the scattering interference produced by the high-energy electron beam and the metal container is very weak, so weak that it will hardly affect the calculation of the proton radius data. Therefore, this part of the data is ignored in the calculation."

"And after canceling the metal container, the anomaly appeared."

"From the data of this proton radius measurement experiment, the scattering interference produced by high-energy electron beams and metal containers is far more powerful than previous calculations."

"The reason it was ignored is that a large part of its interference was transformed into energy level data, which was not calculated by previous physicists."

"Therefore, the final calculated proton radius value is slightly larger than the correct radius."

"This point, I used some previous historical observation data to verify."

"You can look at these data. Through calculation, it can be clearly found that the experimental energy level data without using metal containers as hydrogen atom cloud equipment is significantly higher by 1.7 to 1.8 energy levels."

"From this, we can fully confirm"

"Scattering interference from high-energy electron beams and metal containers is indeed stronger than previously calculated by physicists, strong enough to affect the proton radius data."

"As for the radius of the proton, the actual value is much smaller than the previous measurement value."

"Perhaps, when the experimental equipment is advanced enough in the future, the value of 0.831 can be further reduced."

"This is my additional report."

"The report is over, thank you for your patience and listening."

In the venue, there was silence.

Everyone was shocked by Xu Chuan's report.

No one spoke, even Rich Flick, who asked the question, stood there silent.

Because part of the scattering interference produced by the high-energy electron beam and the metal container is converted into energy level data, does it eventually lead to an error in the calculation of the radius of the proton?

If so, the mistake that many physicists in the physics community have made about the size of the proton has been serious for a long time.

As much as you don't want to admit the problem, the numbers don't lie.

Those calculated accurate data all point to this serious problem.

Perhaps, the teenager on the podium might really be right.

Rich Flick stood there silent.

Although he was very reluctant to admit this in his heart, he couldn't find a new loophole to refute, whether it was a theoretical point of view, or data analysis and calculation, he couldn't find a loophole.

On the contrary, his previous doubts about the other party were more like a fuel to make the other party fly higher.

On the podium, Xu Chuan waited quietly for a while, no one raised their hands to speak and ask questions.

The inspector of CERN came to the podium and made a brief summary of the report. Thanks to the scientific researchers who participated in the project, and also to Xu Chuan for the new discoveries brought to the physics community.

And encourage other physicists and research institutions to verify the mystery of the proton radius, hoping to thoroughly confirm and solve this problem in the near future, and get more accurate proton radius data.

When the staff of CERN announced the end of the report, the physicists in the venue also left the auditorium one after another.

Xu Chuan came down from the podium, and the members of the group rushed over immediately.

"Great job! Xu!" Intern Athol Murphy of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology came up excitedly and punched Xu Chuan, making a dull sound in the chest.

"Xu, you have solved a super difficult problem in the physics world. I believe you will have a share of the Dirac Medal and the Einstein Award next year."

Xu Chuan smiled and said: "It's not me, it's us together. Your contributions are equally important. I will add your names to the paper. I hope it can be helpful to you."

Hearing this, all the members of the team showed bright smiles on their faces, nothing could make people happier than this.

A paper can usually have 3-6 authors, such as first author, corresponding author, second author, third author, etc. Different authors occupy completely different weights in the paper.

The solution to the mystery of the proton radius this time, the first and corresponding authors are undoubtedly Xu Chuan's, but the second and third works are also different for the team members.

After all, this is a notoriously difficult problem in the physics world. It is currently the most cutting-edge problem in the particle physics world, and its weight can be said to be second only to the discovery of the pentaquark particle last year.

If there are no new important discoveries at this year's CERN, then the solution to the mystery of the proton's radius will be the most significant achievement of this year's CERN.

Being able to sign such a paper, even if it is the second or third author, will be of great help to their future development.

With such a resume, it will be much easier for them to find jobs or apply for scientific research experiments or scientific research equipment in the future.

For example, Nunnally Kessler from the University of Göttingen, there is no doubt that a full-time CERN researcher will have her share, and it may even be brought forward directly from next year to this year.

Especially for Jonah Krill, the youngest member of the group (besides Xu Chuan), who is still a PhD student at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

Internship at CERN is for study on the one hand, and for graduation thesis on the other hand.

And now, his goal has been achieved.

With the weight of the problem of the proton radius mystery, even if he can only mix three works in the thesis, it is enough for him to graduate from any school.