Revised $^3$He nuclear charge radius due to electronic hyperfine mixing
Abstract
The significant discrepancy in the difference of squared nuclear charge radii of He obtained from electronic-atom or muonic-atom energy levels is a puzzle. In this paper, we show that the tension is resolved by including off-diagonal mixing effects due to the hyperfine interaction. Our findings indicate that the hyperfine mixing effect from the and states () of He leads to a kHz adjustment in the isotope shift of the transition, surpassing the current uncertainty by a factor of . This results in a change of in , shifting from to as determined by Werf {\it et al.}, significantly reducing the discrepancy with the value of determined by , and aligning with the result of obtained from the transition. This adjustment will result in a noticeable change in the absolute nuclear charge radius of He by , aligning the revised value of with the value of determined by within . Our results offer crucial insights into resolving discrepancy in for He and determining the charge radius of He.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2409.09279,
title = {Revised $^3$He nuclear charge radius due to electronic hyperfine mixing},
author = {Xiao-Qiu Qi and Pei-Pei Zhang and Zong-Chao Yan and Li-Yan Tang and Ai-Xi Chen and Ting-Yun Shi and Zhen-Xiang Zhong},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2409.09279},
year = {2025}
}