Nuclear Structure Corrections in Muonic Deuterium

Abstract

The 7σ discrepancy between the charge radius of the proton as extracted from electronic hydrogen to the determination from muonic hydrogen, coined the proton ``radius puzzle", challenges our understanding of physics based on the standard model. High-precision measurements have been conducted on muonic deuterium to study whether the discrepancy with ordinary atoms persists or varies with mass number. For the success of this experimental campaign accurate theoretical calculations of the nuclear structure corrections in muonic deuterium (μD) are required. In this work we contributed by accurately and precisely calculating them using state-of-the-art nuclear potentials derived from chiral effective field theory. We performed a multipole expansion of the electromagnetic operator and accounted for Coulomb, relativistic and finite-nucleon-size corrections. Our determinations will impact the accuracy of the experimental program.