Radiative and photon-exchange corrections to New Physics contributions to energy levels in few-electron ions

TL;DR

This paper calculates quantum electrodynamic and photon-exchange corrections to hypothetical new physics effects on energy levels in few-electron ions, aiding the interpretation of isotope shift spectroscopy for new physics constraints.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed calculations of radiative and photon-exchange corrections to new physics contributions in few-electron ions, crucial for accurate experimental constraints.

Findings

Photon-exchange corrections can dominate over the one-electron new physics contribution for light ions.

Corrections are significant for heavy boson mediators, affecting the interpretation of isotope shift data.

Results improve the theoretical understanding necessary for setting bounds on new physics from atomic spectra.

Abstract

The influence of hypothetical new interactions beyond the Standard Model on atomic spectra has attracted recent interest. In the present work, interelectronic photon-exchange corrections and radiative quantum electrodynamic corrections to the hypothetical contribution to the energy levels of few-electron ions from a new interaction are calculated. The $1s$, $2s$ and $2p_{1/2}$ ground states of H-like, Li-like and B-like ions are considered, as motivated by proposals to use isotope shift spectroscopy of few-electron ions in order to set stringent constraints on hypothetical new interactions. It is shown that, for light Li-like and B-like ions, photon-exchange corrections are comparable to or even larger, by up to several orders of magnitude, than the leading one-electron contribution from the new interaction, when the latter is mediated by heavy bosons.