The contribution of axial-vector mesons to hyperfine structure of muonic hydrogen.

The contribution from the axial-vector meson exchange to the potential of the muon–proton interaction in muonic hydrogen induced by anomalous axial-vector meson coupling to two photon state is calculated. It is shown that such contribution to the hyperfine splitting in muonic hydrogen is large and important for a comparison with precise experimental data. In the light of our result, the proton radius “puzzle” is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]