It is shown that one can stimulate, by using the present-day laboratory magnetic fields, transitions between the $lm$ sub-levels of fast $μHe^+$ ions formating in muon catalyzed fusion. Strong fields also cause the self-ionization from highly excited states of such muonic ions. Both effects are the consequence of the interaction of the bound muon with the oscillating field of the Stark term coupling the center-of-mass and muon motions of the $μHe^+$ ion due to the non-separability of the collective and internal variables in this system. The performed calculations show a possibility to drive the population of the $lm$ sub-levels by applying a field of a few $Tesla$, which affects the reactivation rate and is especially important to the $Kα$ $x$-ray production in muon catalyzed fusion. It is also shown that the $2s-2p$ splitting in $μHe^+$ due to the vacuum polarization slightly decreases the stimulated transition rates.
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_…
Quantum interference between energetically close states is theoretically investigated, with the state structure being observed via laser spectroscopy. In this work, we focus on hyperfine states of selected hydrogenic muonic isotopes, and on how quantum interference affects the measured Lamb shift. The process of photon excitation and subsequent photon decay is implemented within the framework of nonrelativistic second-order perturbation theory. Due to its experimental interest, calculations are performed for muonic hydrogen, deuterium, and helium-3. We restrict our analysis to the case of phot…
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.
Contributions to the energy levels in light muonic atoms and, in particular, to the Lamb shift fall into a few well-distinguished classes. The related diagrams are calculated using different approaches. In particular, there is a specific kind of non-relativistic contributions. Here we consider such corrections to the Lamb shift in order $α^5m_μ$. These contributions are due to free vacuum polarization loops as well as to various effects of light-by-light scattering. The closed loop in the related diagrams is an electronic one, which allows a non-relativistic consideration of the muon. Both kin…
The present knowledge of Lamb shift, fine-, and hyperfine structure of the 2S and 2P states in muonic helium-3 ions is reviewed in anticipation of the results of a first measurement of several $\mathrm{2S\rightarrow2P}$ transition frequencies in the muonic helium-3 ion, $\mathrm{μ^3He^+}$. This ion is the bound state of a single negative muon $μ^-$ and a bare helium-3 nucleus (helion), $\mathrm{^3He^{++}}$. A term-by-term comparison of all available sources, including new, updated, and so far unpublished calculations, reveals reliable values and uncertainties of the QED and nuclear structure-d…
The hyperfine structures of the ground states in the ${}^{3}$He$^{2+} μ^{-} e^{-}$ and ${}^{4}$He$^{2+} μ^{-} e^{-}$ helium-muonic atoms are investigated with the use of highly accurate variational wave functions. The differences between corresponding levels of hyperfine structure (i.e. hyperfine splittings) are determined to very high numerical accuracy. In particular, we have found that the hyperfine structure splitting in the ground state of the ${}^{4}$He$^{2+} μ^{-} e^{-}$ atom is $Δν\approx 4464.55454(3)$ $MHz$, while analogous splitting for the ${}^{3}$He$^{2+}μ^{-}e^{-}$ atom is $Δν\ap…
We provide an up to date summary of the theory contributions to the 2S-2P Lamb shift and the fine structure of the 2P state in the muonic helium ion $(\mathrm{μ^4He})^+$. This summary serves as the basis for the extraction of the alpha particle charge radius from the muonic helium Lamb shift measurements at the Paul Scherrer Institute, Switzerland. Individual theory contributions needed for a charge radius extraction are compared and compiled into a consistent summary. The influence of the alpha particle charge distribution on the elastic two-photon exchange is studied to take into account pos…
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 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 examine the processes of the luminescence in subordinate lines of muonic hydrogen $ μp $ and muonic helium ion $ (μ^4\mathrm{He})^{+} $ in the presence of background source of X-ray emission. It is supposed that a certain amount of muonic atoms existing in the vicinity of astrophysical source reemits absorbed radiation in the subordinate lines. The intensity of luminescence of such a process is proportional to the quantum yield which was calculated for different pumping channels and different models of spectra. It is shown that the luminescent lines of muonic hydrogen and muonic helium ion …
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…
Direct muon transfer in low-energy collisions of the muonic hydrogen H$_μ$ and helium (He$^{++}$) is considered in a three-body quantum-mechanical framework of coordinate-space integro-differential Faddeev-Hahn-type equations within two- and six-state close coupling approximations. The final-state Coulomb interaction is treated without any approximation employing appropriate Coulomb waves in the final state. The present results agree reasonably well with previous semiclassical calculations.
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.
We explore the possibility that a new interaction between muons and protons is responsible for the discrepancy between the CODATA value of the proton radius and the value deduced from the measurement of the Lamb shift in muonic hydrogen. We show that a new force carrier with roughly MeV mass can account for the observed energy shift as well as the discrepancy in the muon anomalous magnetic moment. However, measurements in other systems constrain the couplings to electrons and neutrons to be suppressed relative to the couplings to muons and protons, which seems challenging from a theoretical po…
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…
A recent 15 parts-per-million (ppm) experiment on muonic hydrogen found a major discrepancy with QED and independent nuclear size determinations. Here we find a significant discrepancy in a different type of exotic atom, a medium-Z nucleus with two electrons. Investigation of the data collected is able to discriminate between available QED formulations and reveals a pattern of discrepancy of almost 6 standard errors of experimental results from the most recent theoretical predictions with a functional dependence proportional to Z^n where n=4. In both the muonic and highly charged systems, the …
We have derived the complete formula for the $α^7\,m$ contribution to energy levels of an arbitrary triplet state of the helium atom, performed numerical calculations for the $2^3S$ and $2^3P$ states, and thus improved the theoretical accuracy of ionization energies of these states by more than an order of magnitude. Using the nuclear charge radius extracted from the muonic helium Lamb shift, we obtain the theoretical prediction in excellent agreement with the measured $2^3S - 2^3P$ transition energy [X.~Zheng et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 199}, 263002 (2017)]. At the same time we observe sign…
With this work we start a project of calculating the QED contribution of order $α^7m$ to the $2^3P$-$2^3S$ transition energy in helium, aiming for an accurate determination of the nuclear charge radius $r_E$ from measurements of the corresponding transition frequency. Together with the complementary determination of $r_E$ from muonic helium, this project will provide a stringent test of universality of electromagnetic interactions of leptons in the Standard Model. We report a calculation of the relativistic corrections to the Bethe logarithm for the $2^3S$ and $2^3P$ states, which is the most …
An angle-resolved x-ray spectroscopic scheme is presented for determining the hyperfine splitting of highly charged ions. For helium-like ions, in particular, we propose to measure either the angular distribution or polarization of the $1s2p~^{3}P_{1}, F \rightarrow 1s^{2}~^{1}S_{0}, F_{f}$ emission following the stimulated decay of the initial $1s2s~^{1}S_{0}, F_{i}$ level. It is found that both the angular and polarization characteristics of the emitted x-ray photons strongly depends on the (relative) \textit{splitting} of the partially overlapping hyperfine $1s2p~^{3}P_{1}, F$ resonances an…
Reinforcement of the puzzle about the proton charge radius r, stimulated by the recent experiments with muonic hydrogen induced news discussions on the subject, and now some physicists are ready to adopt the exotic properties of muon, lying beyond the Standard Model, in order to explain the difference between the results of muonic hydrogen experiments (r=0.84087(39) fm) and CODATA-2010 value r=0.8775(51) fm based on electron-proton scattering and H spectroscopy. In the present contribution we suggest a way to achieve a progress in the entire problem via paying attention on a logical inconsiste…
