Line shape of the microH(3p-1s) hyperfine transitions.

The (3p - 1s) x-ray transition to the muonic hydrogen ground state was measured with a high-resolution crystal spectrometer. A Doppler effect broadening of the x-ray line was established which could be attributed to different Coulomb deexcitation steps preceding the measured transition. The assumption of a statistical population of the hyperfine levels of the muonic hydrogen ground state was directly confirmed by the experiment, and measured values for the hyperfine splitting can be reported. The results allow a decisive test of advanced cascade model calculations and establish a method to extract fundamental strong-interaction parameters from pionic hydrogen experiments.