Actinide ions for testing the spatial $\alpha-$variation hypothesis
Abstract
Testing the spatial variation of fine-structure constant indicated in [Webb et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 191101 (2011)] with terrestrial laboratory atomic measurements requires at least sensitivity. We conduct a systematic search of atomic systems for such a test that have all features of the best optical clock transitions leading to possibility of the frequency measurements with fractional accuracy on the level of or better and have a factor of 100 extra enhancement of -variation in comparisons to experimental frequency ratio measurement accuracy. We identify the pair of actinide Cf and Es ions as the best system for a test of spatial variation hypothesis as it satisfies both of these requirements and have sufficiently simple electronic structure to allow for high-precision predictions of all atomic properties required for rapid experimental progress.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1508.07681,
title = {Actinide ions for testing the spatial $\alpha-$variation hypothesis},
author = {V. A. Dzuba and M. S. Safronova and U. I. Safronova and V. V. Flambaum},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1508.07681},
year = {2016}
}
Comments
5 pages, 2 figures