Improved nuclear-structure corrections to the hyperfine splitting of electronic and muonic deuterium

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Authors: Jose Bonilla, Thomas R. Richardson, Sonia Bacca, Chen Ji, Lucas Platter
Cited by: 1
References: 53

Abstract

We calculate the nuclear-structure correction to the hyperfine splitting in both electronic and muonic deuterium using interactions from chiral effective field theory. We explore the sensitivity to different parameterizations of the nucleon-nucleon force, study the convergence pattern in the order-by-order chiral expansion, and estimate remaining uncertainties. Our results are consistent with earlier calculations from pionless effective field theory, offering new insights for a robust uncertainty quantification. Thanks to the order-of-magnitude reduction in uncertainty achieved with chiral effective field theory, the two-photon exchange contribution in electronic deuterium agrees with experimental extractions within 0.5 σ , in contrast to the 2.6 σ discrepancy observed in muonic deuterium. This study lays the groundwork for extending TPE calculations to HFS in heavier atomic systems.

Fields of Study & Subjects

Nuclear physics research studies Atomic and Molecular Physics Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions

Publication details

Journal / source
Physics Letters B
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Volume
874
Pages
140257–140257
Publication date
7 February 2026
Language
EN