Muonic hydrogen and MeV forces

Journal Article · Sun May 15 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · Physical Review. D, Particles Fields

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVD.83.101702· OSTI ID:21502533

Tucker-Smith, David ^[1]; Yavin, Itay ^[2]

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1. Department of Physics, Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts 01267 (United States)
2. Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics, Department of Physics, New York University, New York, New York 10003 (United States)

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 point of view. One can nevertheless make predictions for energy shifts in muonic deuterium, muonic helium, and true muonium under the assumption that the new particle couples dominantly to muons and protons.

• OSTI ID: 21502533
• Journal Information: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Vol. 83, Issue 10; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.83.101702; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
CARRIERS
COUPLING
DEUTERIUM
ELECTRONS
FORECASTING
HELIUM
HYDROGEN
INTERACTIONS
LAMB SHIFT
MAGNETIC MOMENTS
MASS
MEV RANGE
MUONIUM
MUONS
NEUTRONS
PROTONS
BARYONS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ELEMENTS
ENERGY RANGE
FERMIONS
FLUIDS
GASES
HADRONS
HYDROGEN ISOTOPES
ISOTOPES
LEPTONS
LIGHT NUCLEI
NONMETALS
NUCLEI
NUCLEONS
ODD-ODD NUCLEI
RARE GASES
SPECTRAL SHIFT
STABLE ISOTOPES