Constraints on short-range spin-dependent interactions from scalar spin-spin coupling in deuterated molecular hydrogen

A comparison between existing nuclear magnetic resonance measurements and calculations of the scalar spin-spin interaction (J coupling) in deuterated molecular hydrogen yields stringent constraints on anomalous spin-dependent potentials between nucleons at the atomic scale (∼1 Å). The dimensionless coupling constant gPpgPN/4π associated with the exchange of pseudoscalar (axionlike) bosons between nucleons is constrained to be less than 3.6×10^-7 for boson masses in the range of 5 keV, representing improvement by a factor of 100 over previous constraints. The dimensionless coupling constant gApgAN/4π associated with the exchange of an axial-vector boson between nucleons is constrained to be gApgAN/4π<1.3×10 ^-19 for bosons of mass 1000 eV, improving constraints at this distance scale by a factor of 100 for proton-proton couplings and more than 8 orders of magnitude for neutron-proton couplings.