English

New determination of the fine structure constant and test of the quantum electrodynamics

Atomic Physics 2011-03-02 v1

Abstract

We report a new measurement of the ratio h/mRbh/m_{\mathrm{Rb}} between the Planck constant and the mass of 87Rb^{87}\mathrm{Rb} atom. A new value of the fine structure constant is deduced, α1=137.035999037(91)\alpha^{-1}=137.035\,999\,037\,(91) with a relative uncertainty of 6.6×10106.6\times 10^{-10}. Using this determination, we obtain a theoretical value of the electron anomaly ae=0.001 159 652 181 13(84)a_\mathrm{e}=0.001~159~652~181~13(84) which is in agreement with the experimental measurement of Gabrielse (ae=0.001 159 652 180 73(28)a_\mathrm{e}=0.001~159~652~180~73(28)). The comparison of these values provides the most stringent test of the QED. Moreover, the precision is large enough to verify for the first time the muonic and hadronic contributions to this anomaly.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1012.3627,
  title  = {New determination of the fine structure constant and test of the quantum electrodynamics},
  author = {Rym Bouchendira and Pierre Cladé and Saïda Guellati-Khélifa and François Nez and François Biraben},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1012.3627},
  year   = {2011}
}