Two-photon exchange on neutron and the hyperfine splitting

Abstract

We calculate the contribution from the two-photon exchange on the neutron to the hyperfine splitting of S energy levels. We update the value of the neutron Zemach radius, estimate total recoil and polarizability corrections. The resulting two-photon exchange in electronic atoms exceeds by an order of magnitude the leading Zemach term and has different sign both in electronic and muonic hydrogen.

Comments: 5 pages, 2 figures