Hydrogen Spectroscopy with a Lamb-shift Polarimeter - An Alternative Approach Towards Anti-Hydrogen Spectroscopy Experiments

TL;DR

This paper proposes using a Lamb-shift polarimeter for atomic spectroscopy of hydrogen isotopes, enabling detailed studies of hyperfine structure and Lamb shift, with potential applications to anti-hydrogen spectroscopy.

Contribution

It introduces a novel application of a Lamb-shift polarimeter for hydrogen spectroscopy, offering an alternative approach with significant potential for anti-hydrogen research.

Findings

Demonstrated measurement of magnetic and electric dipole transitions in hydrogen

Access to the full Breit-Rabi diagram for specific hydrogen states

Potential application to anti-hydrogen spectroscopy

Abstract

A Lamb-shift polarimeter, which has been built for a fast determination of the polarization of protons and deuterons of an atomic-beam source and which is frequently used in the ANKE experiment at COSY-J\"ulich, is shown to be an excellent device for atomic-spectroscopy measurements of metastable hydrogen isotopes. It is demonstrated that magnetic and electric dipole transitions in hydrogen can be measured as a function of the external magnetic field, giving access to the full Breit-Rabi diagram for the $2^2S_{1/2}$ and the $2^2P_{1/2}$ states. This will allow the study of hyperfine structure, $g$ factors and the classical Lamb shift. Although the data are not yet competitive with state-of-the-art measurements, the potential of the method is enormous, including a possible application to anti-hydrogen spectroscopy.