New measurements show the proton is actually smaller than predicted by current theory.
At the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland, an international team of researchers including physicists from the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics has now measured the size of the proton in experiments which are ten times more accurate than all previous ones.
Instead of 0.8768 femtometres predicted by theory, it measures only 0.8418 femtometres.
Current quantum electrodynamic theory is assumed to be very well proven but its predictions do not agree with these latest measurements.
This changes the Rydberg constant which quantum physicists use to calculate which energy packets atoms and molecules absorb and emit when they change their states.
These energy packets correspond to the spectral lines of the elements. The theoretical calculations for the spectral lines now shift noticeably and no longer match the experimental findings.
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