The quest for the value of the electron's atomic mass has been the subject of continuing efforts over the past few decades. Among the seemingly fundamental constants that parameterize the Standard ...Model of physics and which are thus responsible for its predictive power, the electron mass me is prominent, being responsible for the structure and properties of atoms and molecules. It is closely linked to other fundamental constants, such as the Rydberg constant R∞ and the fine-structure constant α (ref. 6). However, the low mass of the electron considerably complicates its precise determination. Here we combine a very precise measurement of the magnetic moment of a single electron bound to a carbon nucleus with a state-of-the-art calculation in the framework of bound-state quantum electrodynamics. The precision of the resulting value for the atomic mass of the electron surpasses the current literature value of the Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA) by a factor of 13. This result lays the foundation for future fundamental physics experiments and precision tests of the Standard Model.
Despite being a complex many-body system, the atomic nucleus exhibits simple structures for certain 'magic' numbers of protons and neutrons. The calcium chain in particular is both unique and ...puzzling: evidence of doubly magic features are known in 40,48Ca, and recently suggested in two radioactive isotopes, 52,54Ca. Although many properties of experimentally known calcium isotopes have been successfully described by nuclear theory, it is still a challenge to predict the evolution of their charge radii. Here we present the first measurements of the charge radii of 49,51,52Ca, obtained from laser spectroscopy experiments at ISOLDE, CERN. The experimental results are complemented by state-of-the-art theoretical calculations. The large and unexpected increase of the size of the neutron-rich calcium isotopes beyond N = 28 challenges the doubly magic nature of 52Ca and opens new intriguing questions on the evolution of nuclear sizes away from stability, which are of importance for our understanding of neutron-rich atomic nuclei.
Precise comparisons of the fundamental properties of matter-antimatter conjugates provide sensitive tests of charge-parity-time (CPT) invariance, which is an important symmetry that rests on basic ...assumptions of the standard model of particle physics. Experiments on mesons, leptons and baryons have compared different properties of matter-antimatter conjugates with fractional uncertainties at the parts-per-billion level or better. One specific quantity, however, has so far only been known to a fractional uncertainty at the parts-per-million level: the magnetic moment of the antiproton, . The extraordinary difficulty in measuring with high precision is caused by its intrinsic smallness; for example, it is 660 times smaller than the magnetic moment of the positron. Here we report a high-precision measurement of in units of the nuclear magneton μ
with a fractional precision of 1.5 parts per billion (68% confidence level). We use a two-particle spectroscopy method in an advanced cryogenic multi-Penning trap system. Our result = -2.7928473441(42)μ
(where the number in parentheses represents the 68% confidence interval on the last digits of the value) improves the precision of the previous best measurement by a factor of approximately 350. The measured value is consistent with the proton magnetic moment, μ
= 2.792847350(9)μ
, and is in agreement with CPT invariance. Consequently, this measurement constrains the magnitude of certain CPT-violating effects to below 1.8 × 10
gigaelectronvolts, and a possible splitting of the proton-antiproton magnetic moments by CPT-odd dimension-five interactions to below 6 × 10
Bohr magnetons.
Invariance under the charge, parity, time-reversal (CPT) transformation is one of the fundamental symmetries of the standard model of particle physics. This CPT invariance implies that the ...fundamental properties of antiparticles and their matter-conjugates are identical, apart from signs. There is a deep link between CPT invariance and Lorentz symmetry--that is, the laws of nature seem to be invariant under the symmetry transformation of spacetime--although it is model dependent. A number of high-precision CPT and Lorentz invariance tests--using a co-magnetometer, a torsion pendulum and a maser, among others--have been performed, but only a few direct high-precision CPT tests that compare the fundamental properties of matter and antimatter are available. Here we report high-precision cyclotron frequency comparisons of a single antiproton and a negatively charged hydrogen ion (H(-)) carried out in a Penning trap system. From 13,000 frequency measurements we compare the charge-to-mass ratio for the antiproton (q/m)p- to that for the proton (q/m)p and obtain (q/m)p-/(q/m)p − 1 =1(69) × 10(-12). The measurements were performed at cyclotron frequencies of 29.6 megahertz, so our result shows that the CPT theorem holds at the atto-electronvolt scale. Our precision of 69 parts per trillion exceeds the energy resolution of previous antiproton-to-proton mass comparisons as well as the respective figure of merit of the standard model extension by a factor of four. In addition, we give a limit on sidereal variations in the measured ratio of <720 parts per trillion. By following the arguments of ref. 11, our result can be interpreted as a stringent test of the weak equivalence principle of general relativity using baryonic antimatter, and it sets a new limit on the gravitational anomaly parameter of |α − 1| < 8.7 × 10(-7).
We report on the precise measurement of the atomic mass of a single proton with a purpose-built Penning-trap system. With a precision of 32 parts per trillion our result not only improves on the ...current CODATA literature value by a factor of 3, but also disagrees with it at a level of about 3 standard deviations.
One of the fundamental properties of the proton is its magnetic moment, µp. So far µp has been measured only indirectly, by analysing the spectrum of an atomic hydrogen maser in a magnetic field. ...Here we report the direct high-precision measurement of the magnetic moment of a single proton using the double Penning-trap technique. We drive proton-spin quantum jumps by a magnetic radio-frequency field in a Penning trap with a homogeneous magnetic field. The induced spin transitions are detected in a second trap with a strong superimposed magnetic inhomogeneity. This enables the measurement of the spin-flip probability as a function of the drive frequency. In each measurement the proton's cyclotron frequency is used to determine the magnetic field of the trap. From the normalized resonance curve, we extract the particle's magnetic moment in terms of the nuclear magneton: μp = 2.792847350(9)μN. This measurement outperforms previous Penning-trap measurements in terms of precision by a factor of about 760. It improves the precision of the forty-year-old indirect measurement, in which significant theoretical bound state corrections were required to obtain µp, by a factor of 3. By application of this method to the antiproton magnetic moment, the fractional precision of the recently reported value can be improved by a factor of at least 1,000. Combined with the present result, this will provide a stringent test of matter/antimatter symmetry with baryons.
Over three and a half decades of collinear laser spectroscopy and the COLLAPS setup have played a major role in the ISOLDE physics programme. Based on a general experimental principle and diverse ...approaches towards higher sensitivity, it has provided unique access to basic nuclear properties such as spins, magnetic moments and electric quadrupole moments as well as isotopic variations of nuclear mean square charge radii. While previous methods of outstanding sensitivity were restricted to selected chemical elements with special atomic properties or nuclear decay modes, recent developments have yielded a breakthrough in sensitivity for nuclides in wide mass ranges. These developments include the use of bunched beams from the radiofrequency quadrupole cooler-buncher ISCOOL, which allows a suppression of background by several orders of magnitude. Very recently, the combination of collinear laser spectroscopy with the principle of laser resonance ionisation took shape in the new CRIS setup, providing a very selective and efficient detection of optical resonance. We outline the basic experimental developments and discuss important results on nuclei or chains of isotopes in different mass ranges.
State-of-the-art optical clocks
achieve precisions of 10
or better using ensembles of atoms in optical lattices
or individual ions in radio-frequency traps
. Promising candidates for use in atomic ...clocks are highly charged ions
(HCIs) and nuclear transitions
, which are largely insensitive to external perturbations and reach wavelengths beyond the optical range
that are accessible to frequency combs
. However, insufficiently accurate atomic structure calculations hinder the identification of suitable transitions in HCIs. Here we report the observation of a long-lived metastable electronic state in an HCI by measuring the mass difference between the ground and excited states in rhenium, providing a non-destructive, direct determination of an electronic excitation energy. The result is in agreement with advanced calculations. We use the high-precision Penning trap mass spectrometer PENTATRAP to measure the cyclotron frequency ratio of the ground state to the metastable state of the ion with a precision of 10
-an improvement by a factor of ten compared with previous measurements
. With a lifetime of about 130 days, the potential soft-X-ray frequency reference at 4.96 × 10
hertz (corresponding to a transition energy of 202 electronvolts) has a linewidth of only 5 × 10
hertz and one of the highest electronic quality factors (10
) measured experimentally so far. The low uncertainty of our method will enable searches for further soft-X-ray clock transitions
in HCIs, which are required for precision studies of fundamental physics
.
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•Multi-reflection time-of-flight mass separator for purification of radioactive ion beams.•Enhanced ion beam purification by stacking of multiple cleaned ion samples in an ...intermediate ion trap to increase the signal intensity of Penning trap mass measurements.•Multi-reflection time-of-flight mass spectrometer for high-precision mass measurements of short-lived species.•Multi-reflection time-of-flight mass analyzer for target and ion-source development of exotic beams.
The online precision mass spectrometer ISOLTRAP at ISOLDE/CERN was recently upgraded by adding a multi-reflection time-of-flight mass separator/spectrometer (MR-ToF MS) between the linear radio-frequency ion trap and the two Penning traps already in place. As a mass separator, the MR-ToF device has improved significantly ISOLTRAP's capability of purification of contaminated ion beams. In addition, the MR-ToF MS can be operated as a mass spectrometer, either to analyze the ISOLDE ion beam or for precision mass measurements of nuclides that are shorter-lived or that have lower yields than those accessible for Penning-trap mass spectrometry. The MR-ToF MS and corresponding components, its integration into ISOLTRAP, and its various operation modes are reviewed. Furthermore, a precision measurement of the 137Eu mass is presented, determined with the help of the MR-ToF device as a mass separator.
Neutrinoless double-electron capture Blaum, K.; Eliseev, S.; Danevich, F. A. ...
Reviews of modern physics,
12/2020, Letnik:
92, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Double-beta processes play a key role in the exploration of neutrino and weak interaction properties, and in the searches for effects beyond the standard model. During the last half century many ...attempts were undertaken to search for double-beta decay with emission of two electrons, especially for its neutrinoless mode 0 ν 2 β − , the latter having still not been observed. Double-electron capture (2EC) was not yet in focus because of its in general lower transition probability. However, the rate of neutrinoless double-electron capture 0 ν 2 EC can experience a resonance enhancement by many orders of magnitude when the initial and final states are energetically degenerate. In the resonant case, the sensitivity of the 0 ν 2 EC process can approach the sensitivity of the 0 ν 2 β − decay in the search for the Majorana mass of neutrinos, right-handed currents, and other new physics. An overview of the main experimental and theoretical results obtained during the last decade in this field is presented. The experimental part outlines search results of 2EC processes and measurements of the decay energies for possible resonant 0 ν 2 EC transitions. An unprecedented precision in the determination of decay energies with Penning traps has allowed one to refine the values of the degeneracy parameter for all previously known near-resonant decays and has reduced the rather large uncertainties in the estimate of the 0 ν 2 EC half-lives. The theoretical part contains an updated analysis of the electron shell effects and an overview of the nuclear-structure models, in which the nuclear matrix elements of the 0 ν 2 EC decays are calculated. One can conclude that the decay probability of 0 ν 2 EC can experience a significant enhancement in several nuclides.
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