Understanding the proton radius puzzle: Nuclear structure effects in light muonic atoms

TL;DR

This paper uses advanced nuclear physics methods to calculate nuclear structure effects in light muonic atoms, aiming to clarify the proton radius puzzle by improving the accuracy of nuclear charge radius measurements.

Contribution

It introduces a modern ab-initio approach combining nuclear potentials with hyperspherical harmonics to accurately compute nuclear effects in muonic atoms.

Findings

Enhanced understanding of nuclear structure effects on the Lamb shift.

Improved theoretical predictions for nuclear charge radii.

Potential resolution of the proton radius puzzle.

Abstract

We present calculations of nuclear structure effects to the Lamb shift in light muonic atoms. We adopt a modern ab-initio approach by combining state-of-the-art nuclear potentials with the hyperspherical harmonics method. Our calculations are instrumental to the determination of nuclear charge radii in the Lamb shift measurements, which will shed light on the proton radius puzzle.