Reverse-engineering the vacuum: The proton is a new vacuum phase

摘要

The “proton charge radius puzzle” arose because the root-mean-square charge radius of the proton was very accurately measured by two different methods that disagreed by many standard deviations. Electron scattering measurements of the charge radius are strongly supportedby this new proton model, resolving the proton charge radius puzzle. Most of the mass of the visible Universe consists of protons and neutrons. The origin of hadronic mass remains a mystery. We show, by applying old physics in new ways, how to assemble a proton whose calculated charge radius,mass radius, magnetic moment, and magnetic-moment-weighted charge radius agree accurately with experiment. This new physics proves that fractionally charged constituents (quarks) play no role in explaining the mass and electromagnetic structure of an isolated proton. The confinement mechanismis not due to postulated gluons but from conservation laws acting inside a new vacuum phase. In essence, a proton is a bubble of a new vacuum phase that is more than 12 orders of magnitude hotter than the conventional vacuum.