Vacuum Polarization Corrections to Hyperfine Structure in Muonic Atoms

Abstract

Measurement of the hyperfine-structure splitting in muonic atoms would be interesting in view of the discrepancies in electronic atoms. In muonic atoms, nuclear-structure effects are much larger than the uncertainty in the fine-structure constant and may therefore be observed unambiguously. The various corrections are briefly discussed, and the large vacuum-polarization correction is calculated.