Relativistic Ritz approach to hydrogen-like atoms II: spectral analysis of hydrogen and deuterium

TL;DR

This paper applies the relativistic Ritz approach to hydrogen and deuterium spectral data, enabling precise determination of the fine-structure constant and ionization energies, thus testing the Standard Model.

Contribution

It introduces the use of the relativistic Ritz approach for spectral analysis of hydrogen-like atoms to extract fundamental constants with unprecedented precision.

Findings

Determined the fine-structure constant with high accuracy.

Achieved two orders of magnitude improvement in ionization energy precision.

Confirmed consistency with the Standard Model predictions.

Abstract

A long-distance effective theory of hydrogen-like atoms, dubbed the relativistic Ritz approach was recently introduced and some its theoretical consequences were explored. In this article, the relativistic Ritz approach is used to fit extant measurements of atomic hydrogen and deuterium transitions using information-theoretic analyses. As a result, the fine-structure constant ($\alpha$), a fundamental parameter of the Standard Model, may be determined simultaneously with the ionization energies of hydrogen and deuterium, $E_I^{\text{(H)}}$ and $E_I^{\text{(D)}}$. The best hydrogen analysis yields $\alpha^{-1} = 137.035\,999\,185(25)$, in good agreement with the value obtained by other methods and without relying on a separately determined Rydberg constant. From the same analysis, I find that $E_I^{\text{(H)}} = 13.598\,434\,599\,684(25)\,\text{eV}$, an improvement of two orders of magnitude in precision compared to previous determinations and in agreement with the Standard Model prediction at 1.8 parts per trillion. The best deuterium analysis yields $E_I^{\text{(D)}} = 13.602\,134\,636\,543(31)\,\text{eV}$, agreeing with the Standard Model at 2.3 parts per trillion. This study demonstrates how the relativistic Ritz approach can be used for testing the Standard Model with the spectra of hydrogen-like atoms.