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In-beam measurement of the hydrogen hyperfine splitting and prospects for antihydrogen spectroscopy

Author

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  • M. Diermaier

    (Stefan-Meyer-Institut für Subatomare Physik, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften)

  • C. B. Jepsen

    (CERN
    Present address: Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA)

  • B. Kolbinger

    (Stefan-Meyer-Institut für Subatomare Physik, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften)

  • C. Malbrunot

    (Stefan-Meyer-Institut für Subatomare Physik, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften
    CERN)

  • O. Massiczek

    (Stefan-Meyer-Institut für Subatomare Physik, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften)

  • C. Sauerzopf

    (Stefan-Meyer-Institut für Subatomare Physik, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften)

  • M. C. Simon

    (Stefan-Meyer-Institut für Subatomare Physik, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften)

  • J. Zmeskal

    (Stefan-Meyer-Institut für Subatomare Physik, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften)

  • E. Widmann

    (Stefan-Meyer-Institut für Subatomare Physik, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften)

Abstract

Antihydrogen, the lightest atom consisting purely of antimatter, is an ideal laboratory to study the CPT symmetry by comparison with hydrogen. With respect to absolute precision, transitions within the ground-state hyperfine structure (GS-HFS) are most appealing by virtue of their small energy separation. ASACUSA proposed employing a beam of cold antihydrogen atoms in a Rabi-type experiment, to determine the GS-HFS in a field-free region. Here we present a measurement of the zero-field hydrogen GS-HFS using the spectroscopy apparatus of ASACUSA’s antihydrogen experiment. The measured value of νHF=1,420,405,748.4(3.4) (1.6) Hz with a relative precision of 2.7 × 10−9 constitutes the most precise determination of this quantity in a beam and verifies the developed spectroscopy methods for the antihydrogen HFS experiment to the p.p.b. level. Together with the recently presented observation of antihydrogen atoms 2.7 m downstream of the production region, the prerequisites for a measurement with antihydrogen are now available within the ASACUSA collaboration.

Suggested Citation

  • M. Diermaier & C. B. Jepsen & B. Kolbinger & C. Malbrunot & O. Massiczek & C. Sauerzopf & M. C. Simon & J. Zmeskal & E. Widmann, 2017. "In-beam measurement of the hydrogen hyperfine splitting and prospects for antihydrogen spectroscopy," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 8(1), pages 1-9, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms15749
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms15749
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