Recoil corrections with finite nuclear size in hydrogenic systems
Formulas for the combined nuclear-recoil and finite-nuclear-size effects of orders ${(Z\ensuremath{\alpha})}^{5}$ and ${(Z\ensuremath{\alpha})}^{6}$ are derived without any expansion in the nuclear-charge radius ${r}_{C}$, making them applicable to both electronic and muonic atoms. The obtained results are particularly relevant for high-precision determinations of root-mean-square charge radii from muonic atom spectroscopy. We demonstrate that calculations of the atomic isotope shift based on the widely used Breit approximation give rise to an unphysical nuclear-size contribution that is linear in the nuclear-charge radius ${r}_{C}$ at order ${(Z\ensuremath{\alpha})}^{5}$. This spurious term vanishes in a full QED treatment, leaving the correct contribution quadratic in ${r}_{C}$. For electronic atoms, this quadratic term is significantly smaller than the spurious linear contribution.
Authors
- Krzysztof Pachucki (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5972-4546)
- Vojtěch Patkóš (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0599-4847)
- V. A. Yerokhin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2328-8444)
Institutions
- Charles University (CZ)
- Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics (DE)
- University of Warsaw (PL)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physical review. A/Physical review, A
- Published
- 2025-03-27
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physreva.111.032820
- Citations
- 7
- Primary Topic
- Atomic and Molecular Physics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 8.73