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Addressing The Proton Radius Puzzle Using Qed-Nrqed Effective Field Theory, Steven Patrick Dye

Wayne State University Dissertations

In 2010 the first extraction of the proton charge radius from muonic hydrogen was found to be five standard deviations away from the regular hydrogen value. Seven years later, this proton radius puzzle still persists, and challenges our understanding of the structure of the proton. An effective field theory analysis using Non-Relativistic Quantum Electrody- namics (NRQED) indicates that the muonic hydrogen result can be interpreted as a large, compared to some model estimates, muon-proton spin-independent contact interaction. The muonic hydrogen result can be tested by a muon-proton scattering experiment, MUSE, that is planned at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland. …