Reanalysis of low-energy electron-proton scattering data and proton radius

TL;DR

This paper reanalyzes low-energy electron-proton scattering data, especially from the Mainz experiment, to investigate the proton radius and its consistency with muonic hydrogen measurements, focusing on data fitting and analysis methods.

Contribution

It provides a detailed reanalysis of scattering data, exploring how fit parameters and data cuts influence the proton radius determination, highlighting potential consistency with muonic hydrogen results.

Findings

Data could be consistent with muonic hydrogen radius under certain assumptions

Dependence of fit results on Q^2 cut-off and polynomial degree

Comparison of pseudo-data and real experimental data analysis

Abstract

We reanalyze electron-proton scattering data in the momentum transfer region $Q^2 < 1\ GeV^2$, which were used to determine proton electric radius, with main focus on the Mainz experiment (Bernauer et al., 2010). We examine dependence of fit results and $\chi^2$ on the cut-off in $Q^2$ and degree of fitting polynomial, using pseudo-data and compare it with the case of real experimental data. We find that under some assumptions, the data could be consistent with the radius, obtained from muonic hydrogen.