Abstract
The adapted DIRAC experiment at the CERN PS accelerator observed for the first time long-lived hydrogenlike atoms, produced by protons hitting a beryllium target. A part of these atoms crossed the gap of 96 mm between the target and a thick platinum foil, in which most of them dissociated. Analyzing the observed number of atomic pairs, , the lifetime of the state is found to be , not contradicting the corresponding QED state lifetime . This lifetime value is three orders of magnitude larger than our previously measured value of the atom ground state lifetime . Further studies of long-lived atoms will allow us to measure energy differences between and atomic states and so to discriminate between the isoscalar and isotensor scattering lengths with the aim to check QCD predictions.
- Received 29 November 2018
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.082003
Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.
Published by the American Physical Society