Model Independent Extraction of the Proton Charge Radius from PRad data

Abstract

The proton radius puzzle has motivated several new experiments that aim to extract the proton charge radius and resolve the puzzle. Recently PRad, a new electron-proton scattering experiment at Jefferson Lab, reported a proton charge radius of $0.831\pm 0.007_{\text{statistical}}\pm 0.012_{\text{systematic}}$. The value was obtained by using a rational function model for the proton electric form factor. We perform a model-independent extraction using $z$-expansion of the proton charge radius from PRad data. We find that the model-independent statistical error is more than 50\% larger compared to the statistical error reported by PRad.

11 pages, 4 figures, references added, journal version