Quantum Electrodynamics in Strong Electric Fields: The Ground-State Lamb Shift in Hydrogenlike Uranium
- Gesellschaft fuer Schwerionenforschung, 64291 Darmstadt (Germany)
- Institute of Physics Swietokrzyska Academy, 25-406 Kielce (Poland)
- Institute of Modern Physics, 730000 Lanzhou (China)
- Institute of Physics, Jagiellonian University, 30-059 Cracow (Poland)
X-ray spectra following radiative recombination of free electrons with bare uranium ions (U{sup 92+}) were measured at the electron cooler of the ESR storage ring. The most intense lines observed in the spectra can be attributed to the characteristic Lyman ground-state transitions and to the recombination of free electrons into the K shell of the ions. Our experiment was carried out by utilizing the deceleration technique which leads to a considerable reduction of the uncertainties associated with Doppler corrections. This, in combination with the 0 deg. observation geometry, allowed us to determine the ground-state Lamb shift in hydrogenlike uranium (U{sup 91+}) from the observed x-ray lines with an accuracy of 1%. The present result is about 3 times more precise than the most accurate value available up to now and provides the most stringent test of bound-state quantum electrodynamics for one-electron systems in the strong-field regime.
- OSTI ID:
- 20696354
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 94, Issue 22; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.223001; (c) 2005 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0031-9007
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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