Testing the $a_{\mu }$ anomaly in the electron sector through a precise measurement of $h/M$

Abstract

The persistent $a_{\mu }\equiv (g-2)/2$ anomaly in the muon sector could be due to new physics visible in the electron sector through a sub-ppb measurement of the anomalous magnetic moment of the electron $a_e$. Driven by recent results on the electron mass (S. Sturm et al., Nature 506 (2014) 467), we reconsider the sources of uncertainties that limit our knowledge of $a_e$ including current advances in atom interferometry. We demonstrate that it is possible to attain the level of precision needed to test $a_{\mu }$ in the naive scaling hypothesis on a timescale similar to next generation $g-2$ muon experiments at Fermilab and JPARC. In order to achieve such level of precision, the knowledge of the quotient $h/M$, i.e. the ratio between the Planck constant and the mass of the atom employed in the interferometer, will play a crucial role. We identify the most favorable isotopes to achieve an overall relative precision below $10^{-10}$.

14 pages, 2 figures. Paper revised after the new measurement of m_e by Sturm et al. Version to appear in PRA

References in corpus (10)

• Atom Interferometers
• New determination of the fine structure constant and test of the quantum electrodynamics
• High-precision measurement of the atomic mass of the electron
• Measurement of the Electron Magnetic Moment
• Long-lived Bloch oscillations with bosonic Sr atoms and application to gravity measurement at micrometer scale
• Precision measurement of gravity with cold atoms in an optical lattice and comparison with a classical gravimeter
• Combination of Bloch oscillations with a Ramsey-Bordé interferometer : new determination of the fine structure constant
• Complete two-loop correction to the bound-electron g factor
• State of the art in the determination of the fine structure constant: test of Quantum Electrodynamics and determination of h/mu
• Probe of New Physics using Precision Measurement of the Electron Magnetic Moment

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Search for New Physics with Atoms and Molecules
• Measurement of the fine-structure constant as a test of the Standard Model
• Limiting two-Higgs-doublet models
• Axial-vector exchange contribution to the hadronic light-by-light piece of the muon anomalous magnetic moment
• Positronium contribution to the electron g-2
• Quantum mechanics, matter waves, and moving clocks