The deuteron-radius puzzle is alive: A new analysis of nuclear structure uncertainties

Abstract

To shed light on the deuteron radius puzzle we analyze the theoretical uncertainties of the nuclear structure corrections to the Lamb shift in muonic deuterium. We find that the discrepancy between the calculated two-photon exchange correction and the corresponding experimentally inferred value by Pohl et al.[1] remain. The present result is consistent with our previous estimate, although the discrepancy is reduced from 2.6 σ to about 2 σ. The error analysis includes statistic as well as systematic uncertainties stemming from the use of nucleon-nucleon interactions derived from chiral effective field theory at various orders. We therefore conclude that nuclear theory uncertainty is more likely not the source of the discrepancy.

Probing uncertainties of nuclear structure corrections in light muonic atoms

“…In the work of Refs. [3,10,11,15,20,24] the nuclear polarizability contributions were derived from a power expansion of the small parameter η. In this section we briefly review this approach.…”

“…A thorough analysis of all systematic and statistical uncertainties in the theoretical calculations of δ TPE was carried out in Ref. [15] and could not account for the deuteron radius puzzle or the smaller isotope-shift disagreement. In that work, the TPE contributions at fifth order in α were calculated which also included the logarithmic Coulomb corrections at order α 6 ln α.…”

“…Ky, 23.20.Js, 27.20.+n A/N Zem ) and the inelastic polarizability contribution (δ A/N pol ), so that δ A/N TPE = δ A/N Zem + δ A/N pol .(2)The elastic contributions are embodied by the third Zemach moment [8] (or Friar moment [9]) and are thus denoted with the label "Zem". For muonic deuterium (µD), the TPE contributions δ TPE have been calculated by several independent theoretical works [10][11][12][13][14][15]. In the µD experiment, the CREMA arXiv:1909.05717v1 [nucl-th] 12 Sep 2019…”

Muonic Lithium atoms: nuclear structure corrections to the Lamb shift

“…These approaches however lack accuracy. Theoretical calculation using state-of-art nuclear potentials [22,23,[30][31][32][33] have significantly improved the accuracy, in some cases also by a factor of 3. To appreciate this, in Table 1 we compare the relative uncertainties in the TPE term obtained with state-of-art nuclear potentials to previous TPE estimates, and display them against to the experimental precision accessible by laser spectroscopy in muonic atoms.…”

A Statistical Analysis of the Nuclear Structure Uncertainties in $$\mu $$D

“…To quantify the total theoretical uncertainties of δ TPE , all relevant uncertainty sources must be identified and estimated [2,3]. These various sources are:…”