Tensor Polarizability of the Nucleus and Angular Mixing in Muonic Deuterium

TL;DR

This paper derives a general formula for how nuclear tensor polarizability affects energy levels and state mixing in two-body systems, with applications to muonic deuterium.

Contribution

It introduces a new general formula for tensor polarizability effects and demonstrates state mixing in muonic deuterium.

Findings

Tensor polarizability causes mixing between states with different angular momenta.

The effect on hyperfine-structure components of P states is evaluated.

Mixing of S and D states in muonic deuterium is analyzed.

Abstract

We investigate the effects of the tensor polarizability of a nucleus on the bound-state energy levels, and obtain a general formula for the contribution of the tensor polarizability to the energy levels in two-body bound systems. In particular, it is demonstrated that the tensor polarizability leads to mixing between states with different orbital angular momenta. The effect of tensor polarizability is evaluated for the hyperfine-structure components of P states and for the mixing of S and D states in muonic deuterium.