Coulomb corrections to elastic electron-proton scattering and the proton charge radius

Recent values of the proton charge radius derived from the Lamb shift in el ectronic hydrogen tend to be larger than those from electron scattering. Th erefore low-momentum-transfer scattering data from different experiments ha ve been reanalyzed with Coulomb and recoil corrections included. This was d one by calculating at each scattering angle and scattering energy the corre sponding correction obtained from a partial wave program which includes rec oil approximately. Corrections due to magnetic scattering were also made be fore the rms-radius was determined by a fit which allows free normalization for each experiment. It is shown that the inclusion of Coulomb corrections in the analysis of electron scattering data lowers the chi(2) of the fit a nd increases the proton radius by about (0.008-0.013) fm depending on the f it strategy. A value of r(p) = 0.880(15) fm is obtained which is in good ag reement with the one extracted from Lamb shift measurements. (C) 2000 Elsev ier Science B.V. All rights reserved.