Isotope shifts in electronic and muonic atoms, with application to neodymium

Abstract

The different dependence of optical and muonic isotope shifts on the nuclear charge distribution is discussed, with particular reference to the effects of nuclear deformation. This is shown to contribute proportionately less to muonic than to electronic shifts, and the effect is evaluated quantitatively as a function of proton number. It is shown that changes in the nuclear charge distribution can be studied in more detail than has previously been possible, by combining optical and muonic results; the experimental data for neodymium is used to illustrate the analysis. This indicates that the use of data from Coulomb excitation experiments may give rise to serious errors in estimating the contribution of deformation effects to isotope shifts.