English

Hydrogen 1s-2s transition frequency: Comparison of experiment and theory

Atomic Physics 2023-05-09 v3

Abstract

Using the Dirac equation, radiative corrections and finite nuclear size and mass corrections, we calculate the 1s1s-2s2s quantum transition frequency f1s,2sf_{1s,2s} of hydrogen and its uncertainty due to the uncertainties δme,δmp,δα,δrp,δR\delta m_e, \delta m_p, \delta \alpha, \delta r_p, \delta R_{\infty} of the electron mass mem_e, proton mass mpm_p, fine structure constant α\alpha, proton root mean squared charge radius rpr_p, and the Rydberg constant RR_{\infty}. We use the 2018 CODATA [E. Tiesinga, P. J. Mohr, D. B. Newell, B. N. Taylor, Rev. Mod. Phys. {\bf 93}, 025010 (2021)] procedure for the calculation of f1s,2sf_{1s,2s}, and the fundamental constants given therein. We find that the value of the experimental frequency lies outside the theoretical uncertainty (the discrepancy between the theoretical and the experimental frequency is Δf1s,2s(2018)=23.948\Delta f_{1s,2s}^{(2018)} = -23.948~kHz). But, by fitting rpr_p we obtain a vanishing discrepancy between the calculated and experimental frequencies and a 6.4 kHz theoretical uncertainty, with rp=0.830734r_p = 0.830734~fm (and a theoretical uncertainty of δrp=0.0022\delta r_p = 0.0022 fm), consistent with a recent measurement~[W. Xiong, {\it{et al}}., Nature (London) {\bf 575}, 147 (2019)].

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2211.05411,
  title  = {Hydrogen 1s-2s transition frequency: Comparison of experiment and theory},
  author = {Igor Kuzmenko and Tetyana Kuzmenko and Y. Avishai and Y. B. Band},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2211.05411},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

An error in the calculation was found