Measurements of the Generalized Electric and Magnetic Polarizabilities of the Proton at Low<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:msup><mml:mi>Q</mml:mi><mml:mn>2</mml:mn></mml:msup></mml:math>Using the Virtual-Compton-Scattering Reaction

The mean square polarizability radii of the proton have been measured for the first time in a virtual-Compton-scattering experiment performed at the MIT-Bates out-of-plane scattering facility. Response functions and polarizabilities obtained from a dispersion analysis of the data at Q2 = 0.057 GeV2/c2 are in agreement with O(p3) heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory. The data support the dominance of mesonic effects in the polarizabilities.