Comments on proposed explanations for the muonic-atom x-ray discrepancy
- 1 December 1974
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review D
- Vol. 10 (11), 3728-3735
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.10.3728
Abstract
Two proposed explanations for the apparent muonic-atom x-ray discrepancy are the possible existence of nonperturbative vacuum polarization modifications and the possible existence of a weakly coupled light scalar boson. We show that a nonperturbative decrease in the vacuum polarization spectral function implies a reduction in the vertex for a timelike photon to couple to an electron-positron pair. This would lower by a few percent the rate for Dalitz decay and suggests observable effects in the colliding beam reactions , . Turning to the scalar-boson hypothesis, we use neutron-electron and electron-deuteron scattering data to show that a scalar particle with mass lighter than about 0.6 MeV cannot be invoked to explain the muonic discrepancy. We conclude by discussing the useful role which isotope effects and pionic-atom experiments might play in determining the phenomenological structure of the extra potential implied by the discrepancy.
Keywords
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