Compared with the excitement and madness of the group members, Xu Chuan was a lot more determined.

This value is indeed somewhat beyond his expectations, and it can even be said to have made history.

But he has also experienced strong winds and waves, and he will not shout with the excitement of the other group members.

Moreover, the number of 0.831 femtometers is not necessarily recognized by the physical community.

The mystery of the radius of the proton is not so easy to solve.

In mathematics, when a problem has a solution and an answer, as long as it is confirmed that the solution and answer are correct, then the problem can be declared completely solved.

But the physics community is not, at least not when faced with such a hugely controversial issue.

An experimentally calculated and verified answer is not so safe and convincing.

If the physical community is to fully accept this number, it will at least need a very different way of measuring it, and get a same, or very similar, number.

Two sets of experiments with completely different methods to obtain the same set of data, and they need to be able to reproduce to ensure the accuracy of the proton radius.

A single set of experiments doesn't tell the story.

But now, just like the madness of the group members, they do now set a new record.

The particle physics community will be shocked by this answer.

Xu Chuan can guarantee that his atomic charge radius experiment can be completely reproduced.

As long as there is no problem with the data analysis, the radius of 0.831 femtometers will be locked on the hydrogen atom, and may even become a universal radius in the future physics community.

.......

After the excitement of the group members eased a little, Xu Chuan began to rearrange the work.

They need to double-check the data from the previous experimental analysis to make sure that all the data is in order and there are no problems.

This is an important step.

Only by repeatedly confirming that there is no problem with the data analyzed by these experiments will he make a public announcement, otherwise standing at the press conference and announcing a wrong data will make them a joke.

The meticulous inspection work began, and this time, Xu Chuan personally went through the overall analysis data.

On the whole, there was nothing wrong with it, but Nanali Kessler's proposed physical image analysis of gravitons and protons caught his attention.

In this analysis, there is a data calculation that looks a little 'unusual'.

"When the electron beam comes into contact with the cloud of hydrogen molecules and is excited to the 3s state, the energy level data seems to be much better than in previous experiments?"

In front of the display screen, Xu Chuan touched his chin and stared at the calculated data on it.

After being reborn, he seemed to be much more sensitive to all kinds of numbers, and he found the problem in this calculation data at a glance.

After thinking for a while, Xu Chuan opened his notebook and flipped out the previous proton radius measurement experiment data from the computer.

A simple comparison, sure enough, the energy level data of this acceleration experiment is 1.7 higher when the electron beam is excited to the 3s state when the electron beam comes into contact with the hydrogen molecule cloud.

This is not a very large number, but it will certainly have an effect on the final radius value of the proton.

"Is there a situation?"

A question mark floated in his mind, Xu Chuan found the original data and began to analyze it himself.

It didn't take long to analyze a small part of the experimental data, and in less than a quarter of an hour, he completed the analysis of this part of the raw data.

Nanali Kessler's work was fine, and the parsed data was exactly the same as his repeated validations.

"It's strange, why is the energy level of the electron beam 1.7 levels higher than that of the historical collision experiment when it comes into contact with the cloud of hydrogen molecules and excites it to the 3s state?"

"Is it affected by anything?"

After analyzing three historical experimental data and four current experimental data, Xu Chuan confirmed that there was a difference in this value.

When the electron beam comes into contact with the hydrogen molecule cloud and excites it to the 3s state, the energy level is 1.7~1.8 energy levels higher than that of the historical collision experiments.

Although this difference is not very large, it does exist, and when it is brought into the subsequent calculations, it does interfere with the radius of the proton, and the number is about 0.025~0.03 femtometers.

"Is it caused by the interference caused by the collision of electrons and hydrogen atoms by metal containers?"

For the first time, Xu Chuan thought about the difference between his experiment and other historical experiments.

If there is any difference between his experiment and previous experiments on the atomic charge radius, the only difference is that with the help of a more advanced proton accelerator, he eliminated the metal container used to store the hydrogen atom cloud in the past, and directly introduced the hydrogen atom cloud into the accelerator's observation pipeline.

After all, the high-energy electron beam will react with the metal atoms after it enters the metal easily, and its scattering will cause certain interference in the experimental data.

However, judging from the previous experimental data, this interference is not very strong, so the previous experiments have almost ignored this interference.

But now, his keen scientific research intuition and data intuition have told Xu Chuan that perhaps, this part of the scattering interference is stronger than the previous understanding of the physics community.

He may have stumbled upon the mystery of the proton radius, which is why the proton radius of the traditional electron-proton scattering atomic charge radius experiment has always been 0.87 femtometers.

Thinking of this, Xu Chuan's eyes suddenly brightened.

In the traditional electron-proton scattering atomic charge radius experiments, the hydrogen atom cloud is indeed tested through a metal container, which may be really problematic.

However, to make sure, we need to use the data to speak.

This is not very difficult for him, and it can be done with the data from this atomic charge radius experiment and another method called the 'Hydrogen-like Atom Spectroscopy Experiment'.

The reliability of the three types of experimental data is quite high.

If it can be confirmed that the metal container is causing scattering interference to the high-energy electron beam, then the mystery of the proton radius, one of the hottest problems in physics at present, can be solved.

..........

After taking a deep breath and suppressing his somewhat hot beating heart, Xu Chuan once again carefully calculated the data in his hand.

There is nothing wrong with the calculations, and from the eight data he has analyzed, it is true that the energy level of the electron beam when it comes into contact with the cloud of hydrogen molecules and excites it to the 3s state is indeed 1.7-1.8 energy levels higher than that of historical collision experiments.

This may be due to the scattering disturbance caused by the testing of hydrogen atom clouds in metal containers, and it is also very likely that the charge radius of the proton deviates from the two sets of values that are so different.

Find out what might be causing the problem, and all that's left is to prove it with data.

But that's not the most important thing at the moment.

Now what he has to do is to complete the examination of the experimental data of the atomic charge radius.

Then submit an acceptance report to the file.

That's what should be done now.

As for the reason that has just been found, it doesn't matter if you wait until the report is submitted.

In addition, it is necessary to apply in advance to hold a press conference.

For example, this kind of application to complete the experiment and submit the acceptance report needs to be applied at least three days in advance.

In order to allow enough time for the "acceptor" to be arranged, and at the same time publish the lecture information for interested physicists to come and listen.

........

After confirming that there were no problems with the experimental analysis data and confirming that the calculated proton radius data was accurate, Xu Chuan submitted an application to hold a press conference.

After submitting the application materials, the review team completed the review the next morning and scheduled the press conference for three days later.

As for the three days, Xu Chuan needs to prepare the report materials well, think about the various problems that may arise at the report meeting, and dig up the data of historical atomic charge radius experiments to confirm whether the metal container will cause a large enough deviation in the radius of the proton due to the scattering interference of the high-energy electron beam.

This is his time and task schedule for these three days.

But before that, he had one more thing to do.

That is to report the results to his mentor.

His mentor, Witten, has not returned to the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and has been staying in the hotel waiting for his experiments to be completed.

.......

With the printed materials, Xu Chuan took the elevator to the third floor.

Witten lives here.

knocked on the door, and there was a sound of "please come in" from inside, Xu Chuan pushed the door open and walked in, in the room, Witten was sitting at the wooden table and communicating with another old man.

Hearing the movement, Witten and the old man looked up at the same time.

"Mentor."

Xu Chuan shouted, and greeted the old man on the side: "Hello, Professor Frank." ”

"You know me?" At the wooden table, Frank Wilzek asked curiously.

Xu Chuan said with a smile: "Your outstanding achievements in quark particle theory and strong action theory are well known to the world. ”

"I've read books like Your books, The Lightness of Being, and Wonderful Reality: The Real, Wonderful Physical World."

Frank Wilzek laughed: "That's just something for ordinary people to see, and an excellent young man like you should draw knowledge from top journals or papers." ”

Hearing this, Xu Chuan smiled.

This is probably one of the old professor's biggest hobbies in his life.

He likes to communicate with other scholars and give advice to others, especially young scholars, which makes him have many friends, but there are also many people who hate him and think that he likes to be a good teacher.

But on the whole, the guidance of a Nobel Prize elder, most people will think about it seriously.

In addition, another hobby of this old professor is to publish books.

He has written many popular science books on physics, such as "The Lightness of Existence", "Wonderful Reality: The Real and Wonderful Physical World", "Beautiful Questions: The Great Design of Everything in the Universe", "The Principle of Everything", etc., and is an outstanding popular science writer.

After saying hello to Wilzek, Xu Chuan took the backpack from behind him, took out a stack of printer paper from it, and handed it to his mentor Witten.

"Teacher, the data for the proton radius mystery experiment has been analyzed, and we have obtained a new proton radius value, and it is smaller than the previous proton radius."

"New proton radius data?"

Hearing Xu Chuan's words, Edward Witten raised his eyebrows and took the document from Xu Chuan's hand curiously.

"0.831x10-15m±0.0016 femtometers."

"It's true that it's completely different from the previous measurements, but the method used this time also seems to be completely different from the previous measurement methods, and you designed and improved it?"

Flipping through the information in his hand, Witten raised his head with interest and asked.

He was more interested in the improved measurement method used this time than a completely new proton radius.

Xu Chuan nodded and said, "It is true that some of the experimental procedures have been optimized, theoretically speaking, the metal containers used in the original method will cause certain interference to the collision of electron hydrogen atoms, which will lead to the distortion of the observed data." ”

"So on this basis, I asked the staff to inject hydrogen atoms directly into the acceleration pipeline, which avoids the interference of this part and can get more accurate collision data."

"However, this approach has significant limitations, and it requires a more powerful accelerator to accomplish it,"

Witten thought for a moment and said, "This can indeed optimize the entire experimental process, but theoretically speaking, it should not be able to optimize to the point of further reducing the radius of the proton, are there any other improvements in your experiment?" ”

Xu Chuan shook his head and said, "No, the further reduction of the radius of the proton may indeed have something to do with the method used in this acceleration experiment." ”

Hearing this, Witten raised his eyelids and stared at Xu Chuan.

He was keenly aware that his student might have discovered something.

Stared at by his mentor, Xu Chuan took out a stack of manuscript paper from his backpack again and handed it over: "This is my new discovery yesterday. ”

"After optimizing and improving the atomic charge radius experiment and removing the experimental setup that uses a metal container as a hydrogen atom cloud, I found that when the high-energy electron beam comes into contact with the hydrogen molecular cloud and is excited to the 3S state, the energy level data is about 1.7~1.8 higher than the atomic charge radius experiment in other laboratories."

"And I happen to have the data of the 'Conventional Electron Proton Scattering Atomic Charge Radius Experiment' and the 'Energy Spectroscopy Measurement Experiment of Hydrogen-like Atoms' that I downloaded when I was doing data analysis before."

"Through preliminary analysis, I found that the 'traditional electron proton scattering atomic charge radius experiment' almost always uses a metal container as an experimental device for hydrogen atom clouds, and during the experiment, the high-energy electron beam will react with the metal container, causing scattering interference."

"And this part of the scattering interference may be far beyond what we previously knew."

"Perhaps, this problem is the culprit that is responsible for the mystery of the proton radius."

Xu Chuan briefly recounted his thoughts and discoveries, and then waited quietly.

After Witten finished the manuscript, he carefully flipped through it.

Halfway through, he suddenly raised his head and said, "Please give me a pen and paper." ”

He was attracted by Xu Chuan's calculations and discoveries, and judging from the analysis data on the manuscript paper, it may be that this is indeed the answer.

.........