Improved access to the fine-structure constant with the simplest atomic systems

Abstract:

A means to extract the fine-structure constant α from precision spectroscopic data on one-electron ions is presented. We show that in an appropriately weighted difference of the bound-electron g factor and the ground state energy, nuclear structural effects can be effectively suppressed. This method is anticipated to deliver an independent value of α via existing or near-future combined Penning trap and x-ray spectroscopic technology, and enables decreasing the uncertainty of α by orders of magnitude.

H. Cakir, N. S. Oreshkina, I. A. Valuev, V. A. Y. V. Debierre, C. H. Keitel, and Z. Harman,
“Improved access to the fine-structure constant with the simplest atomic systems”,  arXiv:2006.14261 (2020).

https://arxiv.org/abs/2006.14261

Related to Project B02