We merge the dispersive relation approach and the ab initio method to compute nuclear structure corrections to the Lamb shift in muonic deuterium. We calculate the deuteron response functions and corresponding uncertainties up to next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order in chiral effective field theory and compare our results to selected electromagnetic data to test the validity of the theory. We then feed response functions calculated over a wide range of kinematics to the dispersion-theory formalism and show that an improved accuracy is obtained compared to that with the use of available experimental data in the dispersive analysis. This opens up the possibility of applying this hybrid method to other light muonic atoms and supplementing experimental data with ab initio theory for kinematics where data are scarce or difficult to measure with the goal of reducing uncertainties in estimates of nuclear structure effects in atomic spectroscopy.
We present new investigation of the Lamb shift (2P_{1/2}-2S_{1/2}) in muonic deuterium (mu d) atom using the three-dimensional quasipotential method in quantum electrodynamics. The vacuum polarization, nuclear structure and recoil effects are calculated with the account of contributions of orders alpha^3, alpha^4, alpha^5 and alpha^6. The results are compared with earlier performed calculations. The obtained numerical value of the Lamb shift 202.4139 meV can be considered as a reliable estimate for the comparison with forthcoming experimental data.
We calculate the magnetic form factor of the deuteron up to O(eP^4) in the chiral EFT expansion of the electromagnetic current operator. The two LECs which enter the two-body part of the isoscalar NN three-current operator are fit to experimental data, and the resulting values are of natural size. The O(eP^4) description of G_M agrees with data for momentum transfers Q^2 < 0.35 GeV^2.
In view of the future plans to measure the Lamb shift in muonic Lithium atoms we address the microscopic theory of the $mu$-$^6$Li$^{2+}$ and $mu$-$^7$Li$^{2+}$ systems. The goal of the CREMA collaboration is to measure the Lamb shift to extract the charge radius with high precision and compare it to electron scattering data or atomic spectroscopy to see if interesting puzzles, such as the proton and deuteron radius puzzles, arise. For this experiment to be successful, theoretical information on the nuclear structure corrections to the Lamb shift is needed. For $mu$-$^6$Li$^{2+}$ and $mu$-$^7$Li$^{2+}$ there exist only estimates of nuclear structure corrections based on experimental data that suffer from very large uncertainties. We present the first steps towards an ab initio computation of these quantities using few-body techniques.
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 $(mathrm{mu^4He})^+$. 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 possible model-dependencies of the energy levels on the electric form factor of the nucleus. We also discuss the theory uncertainty which enters the extraction of the $mathrm{^3He-^4He}$ isotope shift from the muonic measurements. The theory uncertainty of the extraction is much smaller than a present discrepancy between previous isotope shift measurements. This work completes our series of $n=2$ theory compilations in light muonic atoms which we have performed already for muonic hydrogen, deuterium, and helium-3 ions.
We discuss the current status of chiral effective field theory in the three-nucleon sector and present selected results for nucleon-deuteron scattering observables based on semilocal momentum-space-regularized chiral two-nucleon potentials together with consistently regularized three-nucleon forces up to third chiral order. Using a Bayesian model for estimating truncation errors, the obtained results are found to provide a good description of the experimental data. We confirm our earlier findings that a high-precision description of nucleon-deuteron scattering data below pion production threshold will require the theory to be pushed to fifth chiral order. This conclusion is substantiated by an exploratory study of selected short-range contributions to the three-nucleon force at that order, which, as expected, are found to have significant effects on polarization observables at intermediate and high energies. We also outline the challenges that will need to be addressed in order to push the chiral expansion of three-nucleon scattering observables to higher orders.