Higher-order nuclear-size corrections in atomic hydrogen

Abstract
Nuclear-size corrections of order (Zα)5 and (Zα)6 to the S-state levels of hydrogenic atoms are considered. These nuclear-elastic contributions are somewhat smaller than the polarizability (nuclear-inelastic) corrections for deuterium, but are of comparable or larger size for the hydrogen case. For deuterium the (attractive) nonrelativistic (Zα)5 correction to the 2S-1S transition is 0.49 kHz, while the (repulsive) relativistic (Zα)6 contribution is 3.40 kHz. For the proton the corresponding corrections are 0.03 kHz and 0.61 kHz, respectively. The (Zα)5 contribution largely cancels the Coulomb-retardation part of the nuclear-polarization correction.