The nucleus consists of protons, neutrons. In Bohr's model, electrons move around the nucleus in circular orbits, like the Earth revolving around the Sun. Electrons can move between these levels, and when they do, they either absorb a photon or emit a photon. What is the size of a proton and what is it?
The main building block of the visible Universe
The proton is the basic building block of the visible universe, but many of its properties, such as its charge radius and its anomalous magnetic moment, are not well understood. What is a proton? It is a subatomic particle with a positive electrical charge. Until recently, the proton was considered the smallest particle. However, thanks to new technologies, the fact has become known that protons include even smaller elements, particles called quarks, the true fundamental particles of matter. A proton can be formed as a result of an unstable neutron.
Charge
What electric charge does a proton have? Hehas a charge of +1 elementary charge, which is denoted by the letter "e" and was discovered in 1874 by George Stoney. While the proton has a positive charge (or 1e), the electron has a negative charge (-1 or -e), and the neutron has no charge at all and can be denoted 0e. 1 elementary charge is equal to 1.602 × 10 -19 coulombs. A coulomb is a type of unit of electrical charge and is the equivalent of one ampere that is steadily transported per second.
What is a proton?
Everything you can touch and feel is made of atoms. The size of these tiny particles inside the center of an atom is very small. Although they make up most of the weight of an atom, they are still very small. In fact, if an atom were the size of a football field, each of its protons would only be the size of an ant. Protons should not be limited to the nuclei of atoms. When protons are outside of atomic nuclei, they take on fascinating, bizarre, and potentially dangerous properties similar to those of neutrons under similar circumstances.
But protons have an additional property. Since they carry an electrical charge, they can be accelerated by electric or magnetic fields. High-speed protons and the atomic nuclei containing them are released in large quantities during solar flares. Particles are accelerated by the Earth's magnetic field, causing ionospheric disturbances known as geomagnetic storms.
Number of protons, size and mass
The number of protons makes each atom unique. For example, oxygen has eight of them, hydrogen has only one, and gold has as many as 79. This number is similar to the identity of the element. You can learn a lot about an atom just by knowing the number of its protons. This subatomic particle, found in the nucleus of every atom, has a positive electrical charge equal and opposite to the element's electron. If it were isolated, it would have a mass of only about 1.673-27 kg, slightly less than the mass of a neutron.
The number of protons in the nucleus of an element is called the atomic number. This number gives each element its unique identity. In the atoms of any particular element, the number of protons in the nuclei is always the same. A simple hydrogen atom has a nucleus, which consists of only 1 proton. The nuclei of all other elements almost always contain neutrons in addition to protons.
How big is a proton?
No one knows for sure, and that's the problem. The experiments used modified hydrogen atoms to get the size of the proton. It's a subatomic mystery with big implications. Six years after physicists announced that the measurement of the proton's size was too small, scientists are still unsure about the true size. As more data emerges, the mystery deepens.
Protons are particles inside the nucleus of atoms. For many years, the radius of the proton seemed to be fixed at around 0.877 femtometers. But in 2010, Randolph Paul from the Institute of Quantumoptics them. Max Planck in Garching, Germany, received an alarming response using a new measurement technique.
The team changed one proton, one electron composition of the hydrogen atom by switching an electron to a heavier particle called a muon. They then replaced this altered atom with a laser. Measuring the resulting change in their energy levels allowed them to calculate the size of its proton nucleus. To their surprise, it came out 4% less than the traditional value measured by other means. Randolph's experiment also applied the new technique to deuterium - an isotope of hydrogen that has one proton and one neutron, collectively known as the deuteron - in its nucleus. However, it took a long time to accurately calculate the size of the deuteron.
New experiments
New data show proton radius problem persists. A few more experiments in the laboratory of Randolph Paul and others are already underway. Some use the same muon technique to measure the size of heavier atomic nuclei like helium. Others simultaneously measure the scattering of muons and electrons. Paul suspects that the culprit may not be the proton itself, but an incorrect measurement of the Rydberg constant, a number that describes the wavelengths of light emitted by an excited atom. But this constant is well known through other precision experiments.
Another explanation proposes new particles that cause unexpected interactions between a proton and a muon without changing its bond with the electron. This could mean that the puzzle takes us beyond the standard model of physics.particles. “If at some point in the future someone discovers something beyond the standard model, that will be it,” says Paul, with a first small discrepancy, then another and another, slowly creating a more monumental shift. What is the true size of a proton? New results challenge the underlying theory of physics.
By calculating the effect of the proton radius on the flight path, the researchers were able to estimate the radius of the proton particle, which amounted to 0.84184 femtometers. Previously, this indicator was at around 0.8768 to 0.897 femtometers. When considering such tiny quantities, there is always room for error. However, after 12 years of painstaking effort, the team members are confident in the accuracy of their measurements. The theory may need some tweaking, but whatever the answer, physicists will be scratching their heads at this difficult problem for a long time to come.
