Measurement of the g Factor of the Bound Electron in Hydrogen-like Oxygen ~(16)O~(7+)

摘要

The measurement of the g factor of the electron bound in a hydrogen-like ion is a high-accuracy test of the theory of Quantum Electrodynamics (QED) in strong fields. Here we report on the measurement of the g factor of the bound electron in hydrogen-like oxygen ~(16)O~(7+). In our experiment a single ~(16)O~(7+) ion is stored in a Penning trap. Quantum jumps between the two spin states (spin up and spin down) are induced by a microwave field at the spin precession frequency of the bound electron. The g factor of the bound electron is obtained by varying the microwave frequency and counting the number of spin flips. Our experimental value for the g factor of the bound electron is gexp(~(16)O~(7+_) = 2.000 047 026(4). The theoretical prediction from non-perturbative bound-state QED calculations is gth(~(16)O~(7+)) = 2.000 047 0202(6).