Radiative corrections to the decay rate in the low-Z hydrogen-like muonic atoms are considered. The correction arises from the Uehling potential and it has the relative order of alpha. The numerical results are reported for the 2p-1s transition for the atom with the nuclear charge value up to Z=10.
High-precision laser spectroscopy of atomic energy levels enables the measurement of nuclear properties. Sensitivity to these properties is particularly enhanced in muonic atoms which are bound systems of a muon and a nucleus. Exemplary is the measurement of the proton charge radius from muonic hydrogen performed by the CREMA collaboration which resulted in an order of magnitude more precise charge radius as extracted from other methods but at a variance of 7 standard deviations. Here, we summarize the role of muonic atoms for the extraction of nuclear charge radii, we present the status of th…
Corrections to energy levels in light muonic atoms are investigated in order $α^2(Zα)^4m$. We pay attention to corrections which are specific for muonic atoms and include the electron vacuum polarization loop. In particular, we calculate relativistic and relativistic-recoil two-loop electron vacuum polarization contributions. The results are obtained for the levels with $n=1,2$ and in particular for the Lamb shift ($2p_{1/2}-2s_{1/2}$) and fine-structure intervals ($2p_{3/2}-2p_{1/2}$) in muonic hydrogen, deuterium, and muonic helium ions.
The first fully relativistic, rigorous QED calculations of the self-energy correction to the fine-structure levels of heavy muonic atoms are reported. We discuss nuclear model and parameter dependence for this contribution as well as numerical convergence issues. The presented results show sizable disagreement with previously reported estimations, including ones used for the determination of the nuclear root-mean-square radii, and underline the importance of rigorous QED calculations for the theoretical prediction of the spectra of muonic atoms.
The differential cross sections for low-energy muonic hydrogen atom scattering in solid molecular H$_2$, D$_2$ and T$_2$ targets under low pressure have been calculated for various temperatures. The polycrystalline fcc and hcp structure of the solid hydrogenic targets are considered. The Bragg and phonon scattering processes are described using the Debye model of a solid. The calculated cross sections are used for Monte Carlo simulations of the muonic atom slowing down in these targets. They have been successfully applied for a description of the production of the muonic atom beams in the mult…
The Uehling correction to the energy levels is presented in terms of the hypergeometric functions 2F1. This presentation allows to derived various asymptotics and approximations. Further applications of this method to other atomic characteristics are also considered.
The finite-nuclear size correction to the fine structure of muonic atoms are considered. The procedure for the analytical calculation of the energies and wave functions has been derived in a homogeneously charged sphere nuclear charge distribution approximation. The finite-nuclear size effect was calculated in a first few orders of the perturbation energy, with the accurate estimations of the convergence. Finally, we present energies of the low-lying electronic and muonic states with the finite-nuclear size correction, calculated analytically, for ${}^{185}_{75}\text{Re}$ ion.
The current discrepancy of theory and experiment observed recently in muonic hydrogen necessitates a reinvestigation of all corrections to contribute to the Lamb shift in muonic hydrogen muH, muonic deuterium muD, the muonic 3He ion, as well as in the muonic 4He ion. Here, we choose a semi-analytic approach and evaluate a number of higher-order corrections to vacuum polarization (VP) semi-analytically, while remaining integrals over the spectral density of VP are performed numerically. We obtain semi-analytic results for the second-order correction, and for the relativistic correction to VP. T…
The hyperfine splitting in hydrogenlike $^{209}$Bi, $^{203}$Tl, and $^{205}$Tl is calculated with the nuclear magnetization determined from experimental data on the hyperfine splitting in the corresponding muonic atoms. The single-particle and configuration-mixing nuclear models are considered. The QED corrections are taken into account for both electronic and muonic atoms. The obtained results are compared with other calculations and with experiment.
In connection with recent and proposed experiments, and new theoretical results, my previous calculations of the Lamb shift in muonic hydrogen will be reviewed and compared with other work. In addition, numerical results for muonic deuterium and helium will be presented. Some previously neglected (but very small) effects are included.
A method for precise calculation of the energy corrections due to second order electric quadrupole interactions, as well as mixed electric quadrupole-vacuum polarization in the framework of the dynamic hyperfine structure in heavy muonic atoms is presented. For this, a multipole expansion of the Uehling potential is performed. The approach is applicable for an arbitrary nuclear electric charge distribution. By performing these calculations for muonic Rhenium and Uranium using a deformed Fermi distribution, it is shown that both corrections contribute on a level presumably visible in upcoming e…
The diffusion radius of the 1S muonic hydrogen atoms in gaseous H_2 targets with various deuterium admixtures has been determined for temperatures T=30 and 300 K. The Monte Carlo calculations have been performed using the partial differential crosssections for $pμ$ and $dμ$ atom scattering from the molecules H$_2$, HD and D$_2$. These cross sections include hyperfine transitions in the muonic atoms, the muon exchange between the nuclei $p$ and $d$, and rotational-vibrational transitions in the target molecules. The Monte Carlo results have been used for preparing the time-projection chamber fo…
The differential cross sections for low-energy muonic hydrogen atom scattering in liquid hydrogenic targets have been calculated in the incoherent approximation using the Van Hove response function. A simple model of liquids and the available experimental parameters have been employed for a description of the diffusive and vibrational modes in these targets. At collision energies below about 10 meV, the obtained cross sections are very different from the analogous cross sections for scattering in hydrogenic gases.
Adjusting a previously developed Grotch-type approach to a perturbative calculation of the electronic vacuum-polarization effects in muonic atoms, we find here the two-loop vacuum polarization relativistic recoil correction of order $α^2(Zα)^4m^2/M$ in light muonic atoms. The result is in perfect agreement with the one previously obtained within the Breit-type approach. We also discuss here simple approximations of the irreducible part of the two-loop vacuum-polarization dispersion density, which was applied to test our calculations and can be useful for other evaluations with an uncertainty b…
On the basis of quasipotential method in quantum electrodynamics we calculate nuclear finite size radiative corrections of order $α(Z α)^5$ to the Lamb shift in muonic hydrogen and helium. To construct the interaction potential of particles, which gives the necessary contributions to the energy spectrum, we use the method of projection operators to states with a definite spin. Separate analytic expressions for the contributions of the muon self-energy, the muon vertex operator and the amplitude with spanning photon are obtained. We present also numerical results for these contributions using m…
Effects of vacuum polarization modify the energy levels in atoms with an orbiting particle heavier than an electron. The dominant effect is due to the Uehling potential. In this paper we consider the relativistic corrections to the energy levels caused by the Uehling potential and in particular the fine structure in muonic and antiprotonic atoms. We derive general expressions and consider in detail specific regions of parameters which allow simple asymptotic expansion. We take into account the recoil effects and anomalous magnetic moment in the case of an antiproton as the orbiting particle.
Precision calculations of the fine and hyperfine structure of muonic atoms are performed in a relativistic approach and results for muonic 205 Bi, 147 Sm, and 89 Zr are presented. The hyperfine structure due to magnetic dipole and electric quadrupole splitting is calculated in first order perturbation theory, using extended nuclear charge and current distributions. The leading correction from quantum electrodynamics, namely vacuum polarization in Uehling approximation, is included as a potential directly in the Dirac equation. Also, an effective screening potential due to the surrounding elect…
The differential cross sections for low-energy muonic hydrogen atom scattering from hydrogenic molecules are directly expressed by the corresponding amplitudes for muonic atom scattering from hydrogen-isotope nuclei. The energy and angular dependence of these three-body amplitudes is thus taken naturally into account in scattering from molecules, without involving any pseudopotentials. Effects of the internal motion of nuclei inside the target molecules are included for every initial rotational-vibrational state. These effects are very significant as the considered three-body amplitudes often …
The reduced-mass dependence of relativistic and radiative effects in simple muonic bound systems is investigated. The spin-dependent nuclear recoil correction of order (Zalpha)^4 mu^3/m_N^2 is evaluated for muonic hydrogen and deuterium, and muonic helium ions (mu is the reduced mass and m_N is the nuclear mass). Relativistic corrections to vacuum polarization of order alpha (Zalpha)^4 mu are calculated, with a full account of the reduced-mass dependence. The results shift theoretical predictions. The radiative-recoil correction to vacuum polarization of order alpha (Zα)^5 ln^2(Zalpha) mu^2/m_…
High-harmonic generation from hydrogenlike muonic atoms exposed to ultraintense high-frequency laser fields is calculated. Systems of low nuclear charge number Z are considered where a nonrelativistic description applies. By comparing the radiative response for different isotopes we demonstrate characteristic signatures of the finite nuclear mass and size in the harmonic spectra. In particular, for Z>1, an effective muon charge appears in the Schrödinger equation for the relative particle motion, which influences the position of the harmonic cutoff. Cutoff energies in the MeV domain can be ach…
The relativistic recoil contributions to the Uehling corrections are revisited. We consider a controversy in recent calculations based on different approaches including Breit-type and Grotch-type calculations. We have found that calculations of those authors were in fact done in different gauges and in some of those gauges contributions the retardation and two-photon-exchange effects were missed. We have evaluated such effects and obtained a consistent result from those approaches. We present a correct expression for the Grotch-type approach which produces a correct gauge-invariant result. We …
Precision spectroscopy of light muonic atoms provides unique information about the atomic and nuclear structure of these systems and thus represents a way to access fundamental interactions, properties and constants. One application comprises the determination of absolute nuclear charge radii with unprecedented accuracy from measurements of the 2S$\,$-$\,$2P Lamb shift. Here, we review recent results of nuclear charge radii extracted from muonic hydrogen and helium spectroscopy and present experiment proposals to access light muonic atoms with $Z \geq 3$. In addition, our approaches towards a …
We continue our account of relativistic recoil effects in muonic atoms and present explicitly analytic results at first order in electron-vacuum-polarization effects. The results are obtained within a Grotch-type approach based on an effective Dirac equation. Some expressions are cumbersome and we investigate their asymptotic behavior. Previously relativistic two-body effects due to the one-loop electron vacuum polarization were studied by several groups. Our results found here are consistent with the previous result derived within a Breit-type approach (including ours) and disagree with a rec…
The "proton radius puzzle" was recently solved by reducing the four-standard deviation discrepancy between the results for electronic hydrogen ($H$) and muonic hydrogen ($μH$) atoms to $3.3$ value. The value of the root-mean-square radius of the proton ($r_p$), extracted from experiments on measuring the one-photon $2s-4p$ transition and the Lamb shift in hydrogen, is now $0.8335(95)$ fm, that is in good agreement with the muonic hydrogen experiments, $0.84087(39)$ fm. Even so, these values deviate significantly from the CODATA value, which is determined as the average using the results for va…
Nuclear structure corrections to energy levels of light muonic atoms are derived with particular attention to the nuclear mass dependence. The obtained result for the 2P-2S transition of 1.717(19) meV serves for determination of the nuclear charge radius from the spectroscopic measurement in muonic deuterium.
In muonic atoms the Uehling potential (an effect of a free electronic vacuum polarization loop) is responsible for the leading contribution to the Lamb shift causing the splitting of states with Delta n = 0 and Delta l \neq 0. Here we consider the Lamb shift in the leading nonrelativistic approximation, i.e., within an approach based on a certain Schrodinger equation. That is valid for low and medium $Z$ as long as (Z alpha)^2 >> 1. The result is a function of a few parameters, including kappa = Z alpha m_ mu/m_e, n and l. We present various asymptotics and in particular we study a region of v…
The formation and various disintegration modes of $2s$ states for muonic hydrogen and deuterium atoms at kinetic energies both above and below the $2s-2p$ threshold are studied. The cross sections of the collision-induced radiative quenching, elastic scattering, and Coulomb deexcitation of $(μ^- p)_{2s}$ and $(μ^- d)_{2s}$ atoms in collisions with ordinary hydrogen and deuterium atoms at collision energies below the $2s-2p$ threshold are calculated in the framework of the close-coupling approach. The basis set includes all open and closed channels corresponding to exotic-atom states with princ…
Resonant scattering of muonic hydrogen atoms via back decay of molecular complex, a key process in the understanding of epithermal muonic molecular formation, is analyzed. The limitations of the effective rate approximation are discussed and the importance of the explicit treatment of the back decay is stressed. An expression of the energy distribution for the back-decayed atoms is given.
From the comparison between the experimental and theoretical results for the energy difference between 2s1/2 and 2p1/2 states in hydrogen and hydrogen-like ions with different values of Z, we estimate bounds for the presence of an extra fractional dimension. These bounds are higher when we work with muonic hydrogen and muonic deuterium, which open the possibility that future measurements of the Lamb shift in muonic atoms with one electron and higher values of Z may show evidence of the extra dimension.
Weak interaction contributions to hyperfine splitting and Lamb shift in light electronic and muonic atoms are calculated. We notice that correction to hyperfine splitting turns into zero for deuterium. Weak correction to the Lamb shift in hydrogen is additionally suppressed in comparison with other cases by a small factor $(1-4\sin^2θ_W)$.
Radiative deexcitation (RD) of the metastable 2S state of muonic protium and deuterium atoms has been observed. In muonic protium, we improve the precision on lifetime and population (formation probability) values for the short-lived μp(2S) component, and give an upper limit for RD of long-lived μp(2S) atoms. In muonic deuterium at 1 hPa, 3.1 +-0.3 % of all stopped muons form μd(2S) atoms. The short-lived 2S component has a population of 1.35 +0.57 -0.33 % and a lifetime of τ_short(μd) = 138 +32 -34 ns. We see evidence for RD of long-lived μd(2S) with a lifetime of τ_long(μd) = 1.15 +0.75 -0.5…
The recoil, vacuum polarization and electron vertex corrections of first and second orders in the fine structure constant $α$ and the ratio of electron to muon and electron to α-particle masses are calculated in the hyperfine splitting of the $1s^{(e)}_{1/2}2s^{(μ)}_{1/2}$ state of muonic helium atom (μe ^4_2He) on the basis of a perturbation theory. We obtain total result for the muonically excited state hyperfine splitting $Δν^{hfs}=4295.66$ MHz which improves previous calculations due to the account of new corrections and more accurate treatment of the electron vertex contribution.
Recently we calculated relativistic recoil corrections to the energy levels of the low lying states in muonic hydrogen induced by electron vacuum polarization effects. The results were obtained by Breit-type and Grotch-type calculations. The former were described in our previous papers in detail, and here we present the latter. The Grotch equation was originally developed for pure Coulomb systems and allowed to express the relativistic recoil correction in order $(Zα)^4m^2/M$ in terms of the relativistic non-recoil contribution $(Zα)^4m$. Certain attempts to adjust the method to electronic vac…
Bidimensional muonic and electronic atoms, with nuclei composed of a proton, deuteron, and triton, and governed by Chern-Simons potential, are numerically solved. Their eigenvalues and eigenfunctions are determined with a slightly modified Numerov method. Results are compared with those assuming that the same atoms are governed by the usual $1/r$ potential even in a two-dimensional space, as well as with its three-dimensional analogs.
The complete contribution of diagrams with the light-by-light scattering to the Lamb shift is found for muonic hydrogen, deuterium and helium ion. The results are obtained in the static muon approximation and a part of the paper is devoted to the verification of this approximation and analysis of its uncertainty.
Laser spectroscopy of the Lamb shift (2S-2P energy difference) in light muonic atoms or ions, in which one negative muon $μ^-$ is bound to a nucleus, has been performed. The measurements yield significantly improved values of the root-mean-square charge radii of the nuclei, owing to the large muon mass, which results in a vastly increased muon wave function overlap with the nucleus. The values of the proton and deuteron radii are 10 and 3 times more accurate than the respective CODATA values, but 7 standard deviations smaller. Data on muonic helium-3 and -4 ions is being analyzed and will give…
We consider one-loop light-by-light-scattering contributions to the Lamb shift of the $1s, 2s, 2p$ states in light muonic hydrogen like atoms at $Z\leq10$. The contributions are of the order $α^5m_μ$ (with diverse dependence on the nuclear charge $Z$). Those include the contributions of the so-called Wichmann-Kroll potential ($α(Zα)^4m_μ$), the virtual Delbrück scattering ($α^2(Zα)^3m_μ$), etc. The results are obtained in a nonrelativistic approximation. For the calculation of the virtual-Delbrück-scattering contribution, we have constructed an effective potential in the coordinate space which…
High-harmonic generation from muonic atoms exposed to intense laser fields is considered. Our particular interest lies in effects arising from the finite nuclear mass and size. We numerically perform a fully quantum mechanical treatment of the muon-nucleus dynamics by employing modified soft-core and hard-core potentials. It is shown that the position of the high-energy cutoff of the harmonic spectrum depends on the nuclear mass, while the height of the spectral plateau is sensitive to the nuclear radius. We also demonstrate that $γ$-ray harmonics can be generated from muonic atoms in ultrastr…
We present calculations of nuclear structure effects to the Lamb shift in light muonic atoms. We adopt a modern ab-initio approach by combining state-of-the-art nuclear potentials with the hyperspherical harmonics method. Our calculations are instrumental to the determination of nuclear charge radii in the Lamb shift measurements, which will shed light on the proton radius puzzle.
The measurement of the Lamb shift in muonic hydrogen and the subsequent emergence of the proton-radius puzzle have motivated an experimental campaign devoted to measuring the Lamb shift in other light muonic atoms, such as muonic deuterium and helium. For these systems it has been shown that two-photon exchange nuclear structure corrections are the largest source of uncertainty and consequently the bottleneck for exploiting the experimental precision to extract the nuclear charge radius. Utilizing techniques and methods developed to study electromagnetic reactions in light nuclei, recent calcu…
We illustrate how nuclear polarization corrections in muonic atoms can be formally connected to inelastic response functions of a nucleus. We first discuss the point-nucleon approximation and then include finite-nucleon-size corrections. As an example, we compare our ab-initio calculation of the third Zemach moment in the muonic Helium-4 ion to previous phenomenological results.
Total energies and various bound state properties are determined for the ground states in all six four-body muonic $a^{+} b^{+} μ^{-} e^{-}$ quasi-atoms. These quasi-atoms contain two nuclei of the hydrogen isotopes $p^{+}, d^{+}, t^{+}$, one negatively charged muon $μ^{-}$ and one electron $e^{-}$. In general, each of the four-body muonic $a^{+} b^{+} μ^{-} e^{-}$ quasi-atoms, where $(a, b) = (p, d, t)$, can be considered as the regular one-electron (hydrogen) atom with the complex nucleus $a^{+} b^{+} μ^{-}$ which has a finite number of bound states. Furthermore, all properties of such quasi…
Studies of muonic hydrogen atoms and molecules have been performed traditionally in bulk targets of gas, liquid or solid. At TRIUMF, Canada's meson facility, we have developed a new type of target system using multilayer thin films of solid hydrogen, which provides a beam of muonic hydrogen atoms in vacuum. Using the time-of-flight of the muonic atoms, the energy-dependent information of muonic reactions are obtained in direct manner. We discuss some unique measurements enabled by the new technique, with emphasis on processes relevant to muon catalyzed fusion.
A long-standing problem of fine-structure anomalies in muonic atoms is revisited by considering the $Δ2p$ splitting in muonic $^{90}\mathrm{Zr}$, $^{120}\mathrm{Sn}$ and $^{208}\mathrm{Pb}$ and the $Δ3p$ splitting in muonic $^{208}\mathrm{Pb}$. State-of-the-art techniques from both nuclear and atomic physics are brought together in order to perform the most comprehensive to date calculations of nuclear-polarization energy shifts. Barring the more subtle case of muonic $^{208}\mathrm{Pb}$, the results suggest that the dominant calculation uncertainty is much smaller than the persisting discrepa…
The calculation of hadronic polarizability contribution of the nucleus to hyperfine structure of muonic hydrogen and helium is carried out within the unitary isobar model and experimental data on the polarized structure functions of deep inelastic lepton-proton and lepton-deuteron scattering. The calculation of virtual absorption cross sections of transversely and longitudinally polarized photons by nucleons in the resonance region is performed in the framework of the program MAID.
The kinetic energy distribution of ground state muonic hydrogen atoms mu-p(1S) is determined from time-of-flight spectra measured at 4, 16, and 64 hPa H2 room-temperature gas. A 0.9 keV-component is discovered and attributed to radiationless deexcitation of long-lived mu-p(2S) atoms in collisions with H2 molecules. The analysis reveals a relative population of about 1%, and a pressure-dependent lifetime (e.g. (30.4 +21.4 -9.7) ns at 64 hPa) of the long-lived mu-p(2S) population, equivalent to a 2S-quench rate in mu-p(2S) + H2 collisions of (4.4 +2.1 -1.8) 10^11 s^-1 at liquid hydrogen density.
A few-body formalism is applied for computation of two different three-charge-particle systems. The first system is a collision of a slow antiproton, $\bar{\rm{p}}$, with a positronium atom: Ps$=(e^+e^-)$ $-$ a bound state of an electron and a positron. The second problem is a collision of $\bar{\rm{p}}$ with a muonic muonium atom, i.e. true muonium $-$ a bound state of two muons one positive and one negative: Ps$_μ=(μ^+μ^-)$. The total cross section of the following two reactions: $\bar{\rm p}+(e^+e^-) \rightarrow \bar{\rm{H}} + e^-$ and $\bar{\rm p}+(μ^+μ^-) \rightarrow \bar{\rm{H}}_μ + μ^-$…
Non-relativisitic second-order corrections to the wave function at origin in muonic and exotic atoms are considered. The corrections are due to the electronic vacuum polarization. Such corrections are of interest due to various effective approaches, which take into account QED and hadronic effects. The wave function at origin plays a key role in the calculation of the pionium lifetime, various finite nuclear size effects and the hyperfine splitting. The results are obtained for the $1s$ and $2s$ states in pionic and muonic hydrogen and deuterium and in pionium, a bound system of $π^+$ and $π^-…