QED is not endangered by the proton's size

Abstract

Pohl et al. have reported a very precise measurement of the Lamb-shift in muonic Hydrogen, from which they infer the radius characterizing the proton's charge distribution. The result is 5 standard deviations away from the one of the CODATA compilation of physical constants. This has been interpreted as possibly requiring a 4.9 standard-deviation modification of the Rydberg constant, to a new value that would be precise to 3.3 parts in $10^{13}$, as well as putative evidence for physics beyond the standard model. I demonstrate that these options are unsubstantiated.

Modified following comments in arXiv:1008.4345v1. 4 pages, 2 figures

References in corpus (2)

• Dispersion analysis of the nucleon form factors including meson continua
• Two-Loop Bethe Logarithms

Cited by in corpus (4)

• The RMS Charge Radius of the Proton and Zemach Moments
• Atomic Precision Tests and Light Scalar Couplings
• Third Zemach Moment of the Proton
• Brief review of the theory of the muonic hydrogen Lamb shift and the proton radius