Experimental access to higher-order Zeeman effects by precision spectroscopy of highly charged ions in a Penning trap

TL;DR

This paper proposes a precision spectroscopy method using laser-microwave double-resonance in a Penning trap to measure higher-order Zeeman effects in highly charged ions, enabling detailed quantum electrodynamics tests.

Contribution

It introduces an experimental setup and theoretical calculations for detecting second- and third-order Zeeman effects in highly charged ions with high precision.

Findings

Second- and third-order Zeeman effects are measurable at 10^-4 and 10^-8 levels.

The proposed method enables testing quantum electrodynamics in strong fields.

The ARTEMIS experiment can resolve these higher-order effects.

Abstract

We present an experimental concept and setup for laser-microwave double-resonance spectroscopy of highly charged ions in a Penning trap. Such spectroscopy allows a highly precise measurement of the Zeeman splittings of fine- and hyperfine-structure levels due the magnetic field of the trap. We have performed detailed calculations of the Zeeman effect in the framework of quantum electrodynamics of bound states as present in such highly charged ions. We find that apart from the linear Zeeman effect, second- and third-order Zeeman effects also contribute to the splittings on a level of 10^-4 and 10^-8, respectively, and hence are accessible to a determination within the achievable spectroscopic resolution of the ARTEMIS experiment currently in preparation.