High-precision Penning-trap spectroscopy of the ground-state spin structure of HD+

TL;DR

This paper reports high-precision measurements of the hyperfine structure of HD+ ions at 4 Tesla, achieving the most accurate bound-electron g factor for a molecular ion and comparing results with advanced quantum-electrodynamical theory.

Contribution

The study provides the most precise bound-electron g factor measurement for a molecular ion and compares hyperfine interaction coefficients with state-of-the-art theoretical predictions.

Findings

Bound-electron g factor measured with 2×10^{-10} uncertainty.

Experimental hyperfine coefficients show moderate tension with some theoretical models.

Results validate and challenge current quantum-electrodynamical calculations.

Abstract

We present high-precision spectroscopy of the ground-state hyperfine structure of HD$^+$ at 4~T. We determine the bound-electron $g$ factor, $g_{e,\mathrm{bound}} = -2.002\,278\,540\,96(40)$, to a relative uncertainty of $2\times$10$^{-10}$, the most precise determination of a bound-electron $g$ factor of a molecular ion to date. The experimental value agrees with recently developed ab initio theory that now includes quantum-electrodynamical effects up to order $\alpha^5$ and has reduced the theoretical uncertainty by three orders of magnitude [O. Kullie \textit{et al.}, Phys. Rev. A 112 052813 (2025)]. In addition, we extract the scalar spin-spin interaction coefficients $E_4$~=~925\,395.758(41)$\,$kHz (electron-proton) and $E_5$~=~142\,287.821(22)$\,$kHz (electron-deuteron), which show a moderate tension with another state-of-the-art theoretical prediction [M. Haidar \textit{et al.}, Phys. Rev. A 106 042815 (2022)].