Theoretical study of the accuracy limits for the optical resonance frequency measurements

Abstract

The principal limits for the accuracy of the resonance frequency measurements set by the asymmetry of the natural resonance line shape are studied and applied to the recent accurate frequency measurements in the two-photon 1s-2s resonance and in the one-photon 1s-2p resonance in hydrogen atom. This limit for 1s-2s resonance is found to be $\sim 10^{-5}$ Hz compared to the accuracy achieved in experiment $\pm 46$ Hz. In case of deuterium atom the limit is essentially larger: $10^{-2}$ Hz. For 1s-2p resonance the accuracy limit is 0.17 MHz while the uncertainty of the recent frequency measurement is about 6 MHz.

to be published in Physical Review Letters

References in corpus (3)

• QED Calculation of E1M1 and E1E2 Transition Probabilities in One-Electron Ions with Arbitrary Nuclear Charge
• Asymmetry of the natural line profile for the hydrogen atom
• Nonresonant effects in one- and two-photon transitions

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Reexamining Black-Body Shifts for Hydrogenlike Ions
• Thermal QED theory for bound states
• Influence of external electric fields on multi-photon transitions between the 2s, 2p and 1s levels for hydrogen and anti-hydrogen atoms and hydrogen-like ions
• Angular correlations in two-photon spectroscopy of hydrogen
• Theoretical prerequisites for the upcoming generation of precision spectroscopic experiments
• Investigation of two-photon 2s -> 1s decay in one-electron and one-muon ions
• Reassessment of line profile asymmetry in measurements of the 1s-2s energy interval in hydrogen