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Abstract

The leading-order contribution of a new boson to the muonic fine-structure anomaly, which refers to a discrepancy between the predicted transition energies and spectroscopic measurements of µ-⁹⁰Zr, µ-¹²⁰Sn, and µ-²⁰⁸Pb, is investigated. We consider bosons of scalar, vector, pseudoscalar, and pseudovector type. Spin- dependent couplings sourced by pseudoscalars or pseudovectors are disfavoured as solutions to the anomaly due to the nuclei in question having vanishing angular momentum. Spin-independent interactions resulting from scalar or vector exchange are also disfavoured because no parameter space exists to simultaneously fit different atomic states of the same nucleus. Therefore, we conclude that a ‘Beyond-the-Standard-Model’ resolution of the muonic fine-structure anomaly is generally disfavoured, and the first-order solution by a single new boson is excluded.