Optical transitions in highly-charged californium ions with high sensitivity to variation of the fine-structure constant

TL;DR

This paper investigates optical electronic transitions in highly-charged californium ions, which are highly sensitive to variations in the fine-structure constant, offering potential for precise fundamental physics tests.

Contribution

It identifies specific highly-charged californium ions with optical transitions that have unprecedented sensitivity to alpha variation, including detailed analysis of their properties.

Findings

Cf16+ has the largest alpha-sensitivity among atomic systems.

Several narrow optical lines with minimized systematic effects.

Transitions include both positive and negative sensitivity shifts.

Abstract

We study electronic transitions in highly-charged Cf ions that are within the frequency range of optical lasers and have very high sensitivity to potential variations in the fine-structure constant, alpha. The transitions are in the optical despite the large ionisation energies because they lie on the level-crossing of the 5f and 6p valence orbitals in the thallium isoelectronic sequence. Cf16+ is a particularly rich ion, having several narrow lines with properties that minimize certain systematic effects. Cf16+ has very large nuclear charge and large ionisation energy, resulting in the largest alpha-sensitivity seen in atomic systems. The lines include positive and negative shifters.