New laser-assisted measurements find that the fundamental building block of matter, the proton, is about 4 percent smaller than previously thought. The new size could poke holes in one of the pillars of the standard model of particle physics.
“It’s a big deal,” commented physicist Jeff Flowers of the National Physical Laboratory in the U.K., who was not involved in the new work. “It’s given us a glimpse of a chance that there’s a real theoretical leap forward to be made.”
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