Progress towards a measurement of the proton radius in hydrogen

POSTER

Abstract

The proton's charge radius continues to have a 7 standard-deviation discrepancy between its CODATA value and determinations from muonic hydrogen measurements. Improved measurements in atomic hydrogen will shed light on this discrepancy. We present a novel experimental scheme, using frequency-offset separated oscillatory fields in standing-wave waveguides, to measure the n=2 Lamb shift in a fast metastable hydrogen beam. We report on our progress, including our first observations of microwave transitions in a fast metastable beam and high signal-to-noise ratio detection in a large-solid-angle photoionization detector.

*We acknowledge funding from NSERC, CFI, CRC, ORF, and NIST.

Authors

  • A.C. Vutha

    • York University
  • N. Bezginov

    • York University
  • I. Ferchichi

    • York University
  • M.C. George

    • York University
  • M. Weel

    • York University
  • C.H. Storry

    • York University
  • E.A. Hessels

    • York University