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