Ab initio calculation of the neutron-proton mass difference

TL;DR

This paper uses advanced lattice QCD and QED calculations to precisely determine the neutron-proton mass difference, revealing the interplay of electromagnetic and quark mass effects crucial for atomic stability.

Contribution

It presents the first high-precision ab initio computation of the neutron-proton mass difference including electromagnetic effects with four nondegenerate flavors.

Findings

Neutron-proton mass difference computed with 300 keV accuracy.

Determined isospin splittings in multiple baryon multiplets.

Results exceed some experimental measurement precisions.

Abstract

The existence and stability of atoms rely on the fact that neutrons are more massive than protons. The measured mass difference is only 0.14\% of the average of the two masses. A slightly smaller or larger value would have led to a dramatically different universe. Here, we show that this difference results from the competition between electromagnetic and mass isospin breaking effects. We performed lattice quantum-chromodynamics and quantum-electrodynamics computations with four nondegenerate Wilson fermion flavors and computed the neutron-proton mass-splitting with an accuracy of $300$ kilo-electron volts, which is greater than $0$ by $5$ standard deviations. We also determine the splittings in the $\Sigma$, $\Xi$, $D$ and $\Xi_{cc}$ isospin multiplets, exceeding in some cases the precision of experimental measurements.