English

Order (alpha^2 Gamma, alpha^3 Gamma) Binding Effects in Orthopositronium Decay

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2009-12-30 v3

Abstract

We present a new, simplified analysis of the low-energy electron-positron interaction, and use the resulting effective theory to calculate the binding effects that contribute to the decay rate, Gamma, of orthopositronium, through Order(alpha^3 ln(alpha) Gamma). We express the total decay rate in terms of the annihilation rate for a free electron and positron at threshold, which has just recently been computed to sufficient precision. Our result corrects errors in a previous analysis.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.hep-ph/0003277,
  title  = {Order (alpha^2 Gamma, alpha^3 Gamma) Binding Effects in Orthopositronium Decay},
  author = {Richard J. Hill and G. Peter Lepage},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-ph/0003277},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

6 pages, revtex. v2: higher order contributions included, references added. v3: check with muonium hyperfine splitting added