Testing the stability of fundamental constants with the 199Hg+ single-ion optical clock
Atomic Physics
2009-11-07 v1 General Physics
Abstract
Over a two-year duration, we have compared the frequency of the 199Hg+ 5d106s 2S 1/2 (F=0)<-> 5d9 6s2 2D 5/2 (F=2) electric-quadrupole transition at 282 nm with the frequency of the ground-state hyperfine splitting in neutral 133Cs. These measurements show that any fractional time variation of the ratio nu(Cs)/nu(Hg) between the two frequencies is smaller than +/- 7 10^-15 / yr (1 sigma uncertainty). According to recent atomic structure calculations, this sets an upper limit to a possible fractional time variation of g(Cs) m_e / m_p alpha^6.0 at the same level.
Cite
@article{arxiv.physics/0212109,
title = {Testing the stability of fundamental constants with the 199Hg+ single-ion optical clock},
author = {S. Bize and S. A. Diddams and U. Tanaka and C. E. Tanner and W. H. Oskay and R. E. Drullinger and T. E. Parker and T. P. Heavner and S. R. Jefferts and L. Hollberg and W. M. Itano and D. J. Wineland and J. C. Bergquist},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:physics/0212109},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
4 pages with 3 figures. RevTeX 4, Submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett