Nature Communications (May 2017)

High precision hyperfine measurements in Bismuth challenge bound-state strong-field QED

  • Johannes Ullmann,
  • Zoran Andelkovic,
  • Carsten Brandau,
  • Andreas Dax,
  • Wolfgang Geithner,
  • Christopher Geppert,
  • Christian Gorges,
  • Michael Hammen,
  • Volker Hannen,
  • Simon Kaufmann,
  • Kristian König,
  • Yuri A. Litvinov,
  • Matthias Lochmann,
  • Bernhard Maaß,
  • Johann Meisner,
  • Tobias Murböck,
  • Rodolfo Sánchez,
  • Matthias Schmidt,
  • Stefan Schmidt,
  • Markus Steck,
  • Thomas Stöhlker,
  • Richard C. Thompson,
  • Christian Trageser,
  • Jonas Vollbrecht,
  • Christian Weinheimer,
  • Wilfried Nörtershäuser

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms15484
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 8, no. 1
pp. 1 – 7

Abstract

Read online

Precision measurements provide a sensitive test of fundamental constants and their uncertainties. Here the authors precisely measure the hyperfine structure splitting in bismuth ions, and report significant discrepancy with the theoretical prediction of quantum electrodynamics.