Enhanced Laboratory Sensitivity to Variation of the Fine-Structure Constant using Highly Charged Ions

Journal Article · Fri Sep 17 00:00:00 EDT 2010 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.105.120801· OSTI ID:21476504

Berengut, J C; Dzuba, V A; Flambaum, V V ^[1]

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1. School of Physics, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales 2052 (Australia)

We study atomic systems that are in the frequency range of optical atomic clocks and have enhanced sensitivity to potential time variation of the fine-structure constant {alpha}. The high sensitivity is due to coherent contributions from three factors: high nuclear charge Z, high ionization degree, and significant differences in the configuration composition of the states involved. Configuration crossing keeps the frequencies in the optical range despite the large ionization energies. We discuss a few promising examples that have the largest {alpha} sensitivities seen in atomic systems.

• OSTI ID: 21476504
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 105, Issue 12; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.120801; (c) 2010 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0031-9007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
ATOMIC CLOCKS
ATOMIC NUMBER
FINE STRUCTURE
IONIZATION
MULTICHARGED IONS
SENSITIVITY
SOMMERFELD CONSTANT
TIME DEPENDENCE
VARIATIONS
CHARGED PARTICLES
DIMENSIONLESS NUMBERS
IONS