Deuteron properties from muonic atom spectroscopy

TL;DR

This paper uses muonic deuterium spectroscopy to evaluate finite size corrections and determine the deuteron D-state probability, providing insights into nucleon-nucleon interactions and deuteron structure.

Contribution

It introduces a method to extract the deuteron D-state probability from muonic atom data, linking spectroscopy measurements to nuclear structure models.

Findings

Finite size corrections are sensitive to the deuteron wave function.

The deuteron D-state probability is estimated to be around 4.3% to 5.7%.

Muonic deuterium data favors certain NN potential models.

Abstract

Leading order ($\alpha^4$) finite size corrections in muonic deuterium are evaluated within a few body formalism for the $\mu^- p n$ system in muonic deuterium and found to be sensitive to the input of the deuteron wave function. We show that this sensitivity, taken along with the precise deuteron charge radius determined from muonic atom spectroscopy can be used to determine the elusive deuteron D-state probability, $P_D$, for a given model of the nucleon-nucleon (NN) potential. The radius calculated with a $P_D$ of 4.3\% in the chiral NN models and about 5.7\% in the high precision NN potentials is favoured most by the $\mu^-d$ data.