Testing the time dependence of the fundamental constants in the spectra of multicharged ions

Abstract

A new method for measuring a possible time dependence of the fine-structure constant ($\alpha$) is proposed. The method is based on the level-crossing in two-electron highly-charged ions facilitating resonance laser measurements of the distance between the levels at the point of crossing. This provides an enhancement factor of about $10^3$ in Helium-like Europium and thus reduces the requirements for the relative accuracy of resonance laser measurements at about $10^{-12}$.

11 pages

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Cited by in corpus (9)

• Varying constants, Gravitation and Cosmology
• Enhanced effects of variation of the fundamental constants in laser interferometers and application to dark matter detection
• Optical transitions in highly-charged californium ions with high sensitivity to variation of the fine-structure constant
• QED calculation of transition probabilities in two-electron ions
• Possible variations of the fine structure constant $\alpha$ and their metrological significance
• Hyperfine splitting in simple ions for the search of the variation of fundamental constants
• Skyrme-type nuclear interaction as a tool for calculating the finite nuclear size correction to atomic energy levels and the bound-electron $g$ factor
• Finite-nuclear-size effect in hydrogen-like ions with relativistic nuclear structure
• X-ray fluorescence spectrum of highly charged Fe ions driven by strong free-electron-laser fields