Paper detail

Nuclear Polarization Corrections to mu-d Atoms in Zero-Range Approximation

Nuclear polarization corrections to the 2P-2S Lamb shift in mu-d atoms are developed in order alpha^5 and are shown to agree with a recent calculation. The nuclear physics in the resulting corrections is then evaluated in zero-range approximation. The dominant part of the correction is very simple in form and differs from a recent potential model calculation by less than 1%. It is also demonstrated how the third-Zemach-moment contribution largely cancels against part of the polarization correction, as it did in e-d atoms and does so exactly for point-like nucleons. This suggests that it may be possible to reduce the uncertainty in the theory (of which nuclear polarization is the largest contributor) to less than 1%.