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Sub-part-per-trillion test of the Standard Model with atomic hydrogen

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Abstract Quantum electrodynamics (QED), the first relativistic quantum field theory, describes light–matter interactions at a fundamental level and is one of the pillars of the Standard Model (SM). Through the extraordinary precision of QED, the SM predicts the energy levels of simple systems such as the hydrogen atom with up to 13 significant digits1, making hydrogen spectroscopy an ideal test be...
This study represents a significant advancement in precision spectroscopy, resolving long-standing discrepancies in the proton charge radius and validating QED at unprecedented levels. The strongest version of this narrative highlights the meticulous experimental design, including the suppression of quantum interference distortions and the modeling of light force shifts, which together enabled a measurement precise enough to distinguish between competing values of rp. The alignment with muonic h...