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The atomic mass difference of (163)Ho and (163)Dy has been directly measured with the Penning-trap mass spectrometer SHIPTRAP applying the novel phase-imaging ion-cyclotron-resonance technique. Our measurement has solved the long-standing problem of large discrepancies in the Q value of the electron capture in (163)Ho determined by different techniques. Our measured mass difference shifts the current Q value of 2555(16) eV evaluated in the Atomic Mass Evaluation 2012 [G. Audi et al., Chin. Phys. C 36, 1157 (2012)] by more than 7σ to 2833(30(stat))(15(sys)) eV/c(2). With the new mass difference it will be possible, e.g., to reach in the first phase of the ECHo experiment a statistical sensitivity to the neutrino mass below 10 eV, which will reduce its present upper limit by more than an order of magnitude.

A new independent value for the electron's mass in units of the atomic mass unit is presented, ${m}_{e}\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}0.0005485799092(4)\mathrm{u}$. The value is obtained from our recent measurement of the $g$ factor of the electron in ${}^{12}{\mathrm{C}}^{5+}$ in combination with the most recent quantum electrodynamical (QED) predictions. In the QED corrections, terms of order ${\ensuremath{\alpha}}^{2}$ were included by a perturbation expansion in $Z\ensuremath{\alpha}$. Our total precision is three times better than that of the accepted value for the electron's mass.