English

Determination of the fine structure constant with atom interferometry and Bloch oscillations

Atomic Physics 2017-08-23 v1

Abstract

We use Bloch oscillations to transfer coherently many photon momenta to atoms. Then we can measure accurately the recoil velocity k/m\hbar k/m and deduce the fine structure constant α\alpha. The velocity variation due to Bloch oscillations is measured using atom interferometry. This method yields to a value of the fine structure constant α1=137.03599945(62)\alpha^{-1}= 137.035 999 45 (62) with a relative uncertainty of about 4.5×1094.5 \times 10^{-9}.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0812.3139,
  title  = {Determination of the fine structure constant with atom interferometry and Bloch oscillations},
  author = {Malo Cadoret and Estefania De Mirandes and Pierre Cladé and Catherine Schwob and François Nez and Lucile Julien and François Biraben and Saïda Guellati-Khélifa},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0812.3139},
  year   = {2017}
}