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We demonstrate a widely applicable technique to absolutely calibrate the energy scale of x-ray spectra with experimentally well-known and accurately calculable transitions of highly charged ions, allowing us to measure the K-shell Rydberg spectrum of molecular O_{2} with 8 meV uncertainty. We reveal a systematic ∼450  meV shift from previous literature values, and settle an extraordinary discrepancy between astrophysical and laboratory measurements of neutral atomic oxygen, the latter being calibrated against the aforementioned O_{2} literature values. Because of the widespread use of such, now deprecated, references, our method impacts on many branches of x-ray absorption spectroscopy. Moreover, it potentially reduces absolute uncertainties there to below the meV level.

Many powerful tests of the standard model of particle physics and searches for new physics with precision atomic spectroscopy are hindered by our lack of knowledge of nuclear properties. Ideally, these properties may be derived from precise measurements of the most sensitive and theoretically best-understood observables, often found in hydrogen-like systems. Although these measurements are abundant for the electric properties of nuclei, they are scarce for the magnetic properties, and precise experimental results are limited to the lightest of nuclei 1-4 . Here we focus on 9 Be, which offers the unique possibility to use comparisons between different charge states available for high-precision spectroscopy in Penning traps to test theoretical calculations typically obscured by nuclear structure. In particular, we perform high-precision spectroscopy of the 1s hyperfine and Zeeman structure in hydrogen-like 9 Be 3+ . We determine the effective Zemach radius with an uncertainty of 500 ppm, and the bare nuclear magnetic moment with an uncertainty of 0.6 parts per billion- uncertainties unmatched beyond hydrogen. Moreover, we compare our measurements with the measurements conducted on the three-electron charge state 9 Be + (ref.  5 ), which enables testing the calculation of multi-electron diamagnetic shielding effects of the nuclear magnetic moment at the parts per billion level. Furthermore, we test the quantum electrodynamics methods used for the calculation of the hyperfine splitting. Our results serve as a crucial benchmark for transferring high-precision results of nuclear magnetic properties across different electronic configurations., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

We present a calculation of the hyperfine splitting of the 2^{3}S state in the ^{3}He atom with inclusion of all QED effects up to α^{3}E_{F}, where E_{F} is the Fermi splitting. Using the experimental value of the 1S hyperfine splitting in ^{3}He^{+}, we eliminate uncertainties from the nuclear structure and obtain the theoretical prediction for ^{3}He of ν_{hfs}=-6 739 701 181(41)  Hz, which is in perfect agreement with the experimental value -6 739 701 177(16)  Hz [S. D. Rosner and F. M. Pipkin, Phys. Rev. A 1, 571 (1970)PLRAAN0556-279110.1103/PhysRevA.1.571]. This result constitutes a 40-fold improvement in precision as compared to the previous value and is the most accurate theoretical prediction ever obtained for a nonhydrogenic system.

Inner-shell electrons naturally sense the electric field close to the nucleus, which can reach extreme values beyond 10 15  V cm -1 for the innermost electrons 1 . Especially in few-electron, highly charged ions, the interaction with the electromagnetic fields can be accurately calculated within quantum electrodynamics (QED), rendering these ions good candidates to test the validity of QED in strong fields. Consequently, their Lamb shifts were intensively studied in the past several decades 2,3 . Another approach is the measurement of gyromagnetic factors (g factors) in highly charged ions 4-7 . However, so far, either experimental accuracy or small field strength in low-Z ions 5,6 limited the stringency of these QED tests. Here we report on our high-precision, high-field test of QED in hydrogen-like 118 Sn 49+ . The highly charged ions were produced with the Heidelberg electron beam ion trap (EBIT) 8 and injected into the ALPHATRAP Penning-trap setup 9 , in which the bound-electron g factor was measured with a precision of 0.5 parts per billion (ppb). For comparison, we present state-of-the-art theory calculations, which together test the underlying QED to about 0.012%, yielding a stringent test in the strong-field regime. With this measurement, we challenge the best tests by means of the Lamb shift and, with anticipated advances in the g-factor theory, surpass them by more than an order of magnitude., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

We report calculations of Delbrück scattering that include all-order Coulomb corrections for photon energies above the threshold of electron-positron pair creation. Our approach is based on the application of the Dirac-Coulomb Green's function and accounts for the interaction between the virtual electron-positron pair and the nucleus to all orders in the nuclear binding strength parameter αZ. Practical calculations are performed for the scattering of 2.754 MeV photons off plutonium atoms. We find that including the Coulomb corrections enhances the scattering cross section by up to 50% in this case. The obtained results resolve the long-standing discrepancy between experimental data and theoretical predictions and demonstrate that an accurate treatment of the Coulomb corrections is crucial for the interpretation of existing and guidance of future Delbrück scattering experiments on heavy atoms.

We investigate the modification of the transverse electromagnetic interaction between two pointlike particles when one particle acquires a finite size. It is shown that the correct treatment of such interaction cannot be accomplished within the Breit approximation but should be addressed within the QED. The complete QED formula is derived for the finite-size nuclear recoil, exact in the coupling strength parameter Zα. Numerical calculations are carried out for a wide range of Z and verified against the (Zα)^{5} contribution. The comparison with the Zα expansion identifies the contribution of order (Zα)^{6}, which is linear in the nuclear radius and numerically dominates over the lower-order (Zα)^{5} term.

Optical atomic clocks are the most accurate measurement devices ever constructed and have found many applications in fundamental science and technology 1-3 . The use of highly charged ions (HCI) as a new class of references for highest-accuracy clocks and precision tests of fundamental physics 4-11 has long been motivated by their extreme atomic properties and reduced sensitivity to perturbations from external electric and magnetic fields compared with singly charged ions or neutral atoms. Here we present the realization of this new class of clocks, based on an optical magnetic-dipole transition in Ar 13+ . Its comprehensively evaluated systematic frequency uncertainty of 2.2 × 10 -17 is comparable with that of many optical clocks in operation. From clock comparisons, we improve by eight and nine orders of magnitude on the uncertainties for the absolute transition frequency 12 and isotope shift ( 40 Ar versus 36 Ar) (ref.  13 ), respectively. These measurements allow us to investigate the largely unexplored quantum electrodynamic (QED) nuclear recoil, presented as part of improved calculations of the isotope shift, which reduce the uncertainty of previous theory 14 by a factor of three. This work establishes forbidden optical transitions in HCI as references for cutting-edge optical clocks and future high-sensitivity searches for physics beyond the standard model., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.)

For more than 40 years, most astrophysical observations and laboratory studies of two key soft x-ray diagnostic 2p-3d transitions, 3C and 3D, in Fe XVII ions found oscillator strength ratios f(3C)/f(3D) disagreeing with theory, but uncertainties had precluded definitive statements on this much studied conundrum. Here, we resonantly excite these lines using synchrotron radiation at PETRA III, and reach, at a millionfold lower photon intensities, a 10 times higher spectral resolution, and 3 times smaller uncertainty than earlier work. Our final result of f(3C)/f(3D)=3.09(8)(6) supports many of the earlier clean astrophysical and laboratory observations, while departing by five sigmas from our own newest large-scale ab initio calculations, and excluding all proposed explanations, including those invoking nonlinear effects and population transfers.

We have measured the ground-state g factor of boronlike argon ^{40}Ar^{13+} with a fractional uncertainty of 1.4×10^{-9} with a single ion in the newly developed Alphatrap double Penning-trap setup. The value of g=0.663 648 455 32(93) obtained here is in agreement with our theoretical prediction of 0.663 648 12(58). The latter is obtained accounting for quantum electrodynamics, electron correlation, and nuclear effects within the state-of-the-art theoretical methods. Our experimental result distinguishes between existing predictions that are in disagreement, and lays the foundations for an independent determination of the fine-structure constant.

A weighted difference of the g factors of the H- and Li-like ions of the same element is theoretically studied and optimized in order to maximize the cancellation of nuclear effects between the two charge states. We show that this weighted difference and its combination for two different elements can be used to extract a value for the fine-structure constant from near-future bound-electron g factor experiments with an accuracy competitive with or better than the present literature value.

We report high-precision calculations of the nuclear recoil effect to the Lamb shift of hydrogenlike atoms to the first order in the electron-nucleus mass ratio and to all orders in the nuclear binding strength parameter Zα. The results are in excellent agreement with the known terms of the Zα expansion and allow an accurate identification of the nonperturbative higher-order remainder. For hydrogen, the higher-order remainder was found to be much larger than anticipated. This result resolves the long-standing disagreement between the numerical all-order and analytical Zα-expansion approaches to the recoil effect and completely removes the second-largest theoretical uncertainty in the hydrogen Lamb shift of the 1S and 2S states.

We report on a study of the polarization transfer between transversely polarized incident electrons and the emitted x rays for electron-atom bremsstrahlung. By means of Compton polarimetry we performed for the first time an energy-differential measurement of the complete properties of bremsstrahlung emission related to linear polarization, i.e., the degree of linear polarization as well as the orientation of the polarization axis. For the high-energy end of the bremsstrahlung continuum the experimental results for both observables show a high sensitivity on the initial electron spin polarization and prove that the polarization orientation is virtually independent of the photon energy.

We measure the absolute frequency of seven out of the nine allowed transitions between the 2 (3)S and 2 (3)P hyperfine manifolds in a metastable (3)He beam by using an optical frequency comb synthesizer-assisted spectrometer. The relative uncertainty of our measurements ranges from 1×10(-11) to 5×10(-12), which is, to our knowledge, the most precise result for any optical ^{3}He transition to date. The resulting 2 (3)P-2 (3)S centroid frequency is 276,702,827,204.8(2.4) kHz. Comparing this value with the known result for the (4)He centroid and performing ab initio QED calculations of the (4)He-(3)He isotope shift, we extract the difference of the squared nuclear charge radii δr(2) of (3)He and (4)He. Our result for δr(2)=1.074(3) fm(2) disagrees by about 4σ with the recent determination [R. van Rooij et al., Science 333, 196 (2011)]., (© 2012 American Physical Society)

The shielding of the nuclear magnetic moment by the bound electron in hydrogenlike ions is calculated ab initio with inclusion of relativistic, nuclear, and quantum electrodynamics (QED) effects. The QED correction is evaluated to all orders in the nuclear binding strength parameter and, independently, to the first order in the expansion in this parameter. The results obtained lay the basis for the high-precision determination of nuclear magnetic dipole moments from measurements of the g factor of hydrogenlike ions.

We report a calculation of the fine-structure splitting in light heliumlike atoms, which accounts for all quantum electrodynamical effects up to order alpha{5} Ry. For the helium atom, we resolve the previously reported disagreement between theory and experiment and determine the fine-structure constant with an accuracy of 31 ppb. The calculational results are extensively checked by comparison with the experimental data for different nuclear charges and by evaluation of the hydrogenic limit of individual corrections.

A high-precision numerical calculation is reported for the self-energy correction to the hyperfine splitting and to the bound-electron g factor in hydrogenlike ions with low nuclear charge numbers. The binding nuclear Coulomb field is treated to all orders, and the nonperturbative remainder beyond the known Zalpha-expansion coefficients is determined. For the 3He+ ion, the nonperturbative remainder yields a contribution of -450 Hz to the normalized difference of the 1S and 2S hyperfine-structure intervals, to be compared with the experimental uncertainty of 71 Hz and with the theoretical error of 50 Hz due to other contributions. In the case of the g factor, the calculation provides the most stringent test of equivalence of the perturbative and nonperturbative approaches reported so far in the bound-state QED calculations.

A calculation valid to all orders in the nuclear-strength parameter is presented for the two-loop Lamb shift, notably for the two-loop self-energy correction, to the 2p-2s transition energies in heavy Li-like ions. The calculation removes the largest theoretical uncertainty for these transitions and yields the first experimental identification of two-loop QED effects in the region of the strong binding field.

The complete gauge-invariant set of the one-loop QED corrections to the parity-nonconserving 6s-7s amplitude in 133Cs is evaluated to all orders in alphaZ using a local version of the Dirac-Hartree-Fock potential. The calculations are performed in both length and velocity gauges for the absorbed photon. The total binding QED correction is found to be -0.27(3)%. The weak charge of 133Cs, derived using two most accurate values of the vector transition polarizability beta, is Q(W)=-72.57(46) for beta=26.957(51)a(3)(B) and Q(W)=-73.09(54) for beta=27.15(11)a(3)(B). The first value deviates by 1.1sigma from the prediction of the standard model, while the second one is in perfect agreement with it.

Within a systematic approach based on nonrelativistic quantum electrodynamics, we derive the one-loop self-energy correction of order alpha(Z alpha)(4) to the bound-electron g factor. In combination with numerical data, this analytic result improves theoretical predictions for the self-energy correction for carbon and oxygen by an order of magnitude. Basing on one-loop calculations, we obtain the logarithmic two-loop contribution of order alpha(2)(Z alpha)(4)ln([(Z alpha)(-2)] and the dominant part of the corresponding constant term. The results obtained improve the accuracy of the theoretical predictions for the 1S bound-electron g factor and influence the value of the electron mass determined from g-factor measurements.

A new approach to finite basis sets for the Dirac equation is developed. It does not involve spurious states and improves the convergence properties of basis-set calculations. Efficiency of the method is demonstrated for finite basis sets constructed from B splines by calculating the one-loop self-energy correction for a hydrogenlike ion.

A complete evaluation of the two-loop self-energy diagrams to all orders in Zalpha is presented for the ground state of H-like ions with Z > or =40.

The one-loop self-energy correction to the 1s-electron g factor is evaluated to all orders in Zalpha with an accuracy essentially better than that of previous calculations of this correction. As a result, the uncertainty of the theoretical prediction for the bound-electron g factor in H-like carbon is reduced by a factor of 3. This improves the total accuracy of the recent electron-mass determination [T. Beier, Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 011603 (2002)]]. The new value of the electron mass is found to be m(e)=0.000 548 579 909 3 (3) u.

The nuclear-recoil correction to the bound-electron g factor in H-like atoms is calculated to first order in m/M and to all orders in alphaZ. The calculation is performed in the range Z = 1--100. A large contribution of terms of order (alphaZ)(5) and higher is found. Even for hydrogen, the higher-order correction exceeds the (alphaZ)(4) term, while for uranium it is above the leading (alphaZ)(2) correction. As a result, one of the main sources of the theoretical uncertainty for the bound-electron g factor is eliminated.

A possibility for investigations of quantum electrodynamics (QED) in experiments on the hyperfine splitting in heavy ions is examined. It is found that QED effects can be probed on the level of a few percent in a specific difference of the hyperfine splitting values in hydrogenlike and lithiumlike bismuth. This could provide a test of QED in the strongest electric field available at present for experimental study.

The contribution of order alpha(2)(Zalpha)(6)ln (3)(Zalpha)(-2) to the ground-state Lamb shift in hydrogen induced by the loop-after-loop diagram is evaluated analytically. An additional contribution of this order is found compared to the previous calculation by Karshenboim [Sov. Phys. JETP 76, 541 (1993)]. As a result, agreement is achieved for this correction between different numerical and analytical methods.

A rigorous QED calculation of the two-photon exchange corrections to the 2p(1/2)- 2s transition energy in Li-like high- Z ions is presented. The contribution due to an exchange by more than two photons is evaluated within the Breit approximation. The resulting theoretical value of the 2p(1/2)- 2s transition energy in Li-like uranium is found to be 280.44(20) eV.