Exciting Nucleons in Compton Scattering and Hydrogen-Like Atoms

TL;DR

This thesis investigates the low-energy electromagnetic structure of nucleons using dispersion theory and chiral effective-field theory, aiming to address the proton radius puzzle by calculating structure effects impacting hydrogen-like atom measurements.

Contribution

It provides new calculations of nucleon structure effects relevant to hydrogen spectroscopy and Compton scattering, enhancing understanding of proton size discrepancies.

Findings

Calculated proton structure effects using dispersion theory and chiral EFT.

Analyzed finite-size effects in hydrogen-like atoms.

Explored two-photon-exchange contributions to nucleon structure.

Abstract

This PhD thesis is devoted to the low-energy structure of the nucleon (proton and neutron) as seen through electromagnetic probes, e.g., electron and Compton scattering. The research presented here is based primarily on dispersion theory and chiral effective-field theory. The main motivation is the recent proton radius puzzle, which is the discrepancy between the classic proton charge radius determinations (based on electron-proton scattering and normal hydrogen spectroscopy) and the highly precise extraction based on first muonic-hydrogen experiments by the CREMA Collaboration. The precision of muonic-hydrogen experiments is presently limited by the knowledge of proton structure effects beyond the charge radius. A major part of this thesis is devoted to calculating these effects using everything we know about the nucleon electromagnetic structure from both theory and experiment. The thesis consists of eight chapters. The first and last are, respectively, the introduction and conclusion. The remainder of this thesis can roughly be divided into the following three topics: finite-size effects in hydrogen-like atoms, real and virtual Compton scattering, and two-photon-exchange effects.