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The imperfection of the current description of proton structure has been validated by nuclear physicists. A new accurate measurement of the proton’s electric polarizability carried out at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility of the U.S. Department of Energy has shown a bump in the data in probes of the proton’s structure. This was observed in earlier measurements, but it was generally regarded as an anomaly. However, this new, more accurate measurement has proven the anomaly’s existence and poses significant queries concerning its cause.
According to Ruonan Li, a doctoral student at Temple University and the paper’s primary author, measurements of the proton’s electric polarizability show how prone it is to stretching or deforming in an electric field. The electric polarizability is a fundamental characteristic of proton structure, much like size or charge. Additionally, a precise assessment of the proton’s electric polarizability can assist in bridging the gap between the various explanations of the proton. A proton may seem as an opaque single particle or as a composite particle consisting of three quarks held together by the strong force, depending on how it is probed.
“We want to comprehend the proton’s substructure. And we may picture it as a model with the three evenly distributed quarks at the center,” Li said. The proton will now be placed in the electric field. Positive or negative charges can be found on the quarks. They’ll go in different directions. Therefore, the electric polarizability measures how easily the electric field will distort the proton. Virtual Compton scattering was a technique used by nuclear physicists to examine this distortion. An intense electron beam from Jefferson Lab’s Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility, a DOE Office of Science user facility, serves as the catalyst for this reaction. The protons are struck as the electrons collide.
Electrons interact with other particles by the emission of an energy photon, or light particle, in the process known as virtual Compton scattering. The photon’s energy, which also affects how it interacts with other particles, is determined by the energy of the electron. While more energetic photons will shoot inside the proton to engage with one of its quarks, lower energy photons may bounce off the proton’s surface. According to theory, a smooth curve will appear when these photon-quark interactions are plotted from lower to higher energies.
The experiment’s spokesperson, Nikos Sparveris, an associate professor of physics at Temple University, claimed that more examination revealed that this straightforward image was unreliable. Instead, the measurements showed a bulge that has not yet been explained. “What we observe is that the magnitude of the polarizability has some local augmentation. As energy increases, the polarizability falls as expected. And at one point, it seems to be briefly rising once more before falling again,” he remarked. “It should behave in a very straightforward manner, according to our existing theoretical understanding. Something that differs from this basic pattern is what we observe. And this is the fact that now has us baffled.
According to the hypothesis, while the strong force unites the quarks to form the proton, the more powerful electrons are directly observing this process. Nuclear scientists have recently observed an odd increase in the quarks’ stiffness, which suggests that the strong force may be acting in an unidentified way. “There is something that, as of right now, we’re obviously missing. The proton is the sole stable composite element in all of nature. Therefore, if there is anything basic there that we are missing, it affects or has an impact on all of physics, Sparveris said.
The next step, according to the scientists, is to better elucidate the specifics of this anomaly and carry out precision probes to look for more areas of deviance and to provide more insights regarding the anomaly’s cause. To offer a clearer image and determine whether there is further structure, Li stated that “we want to measure more spots at different energies.” Likewise Sparveris. “We must also accurately assess the contour of this improvement. The shape is crucial to clarifying the hypothesis further, he said.