Precision Studies of Singly and Highly-Charged Ions: Mass Spectrometry and Laser Spectroscopy

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This research program has two distinct research project: precision mass measurement of atomic and molecular ions and laser spectroscopy of hydrogen-like and helium-like ions.The first project uses a Penning-trap mass spectrometer to measure atomic masses with fractional precisions better than ten parts per trillion. The major emphasis of this project will be a measurement the mass difference between tritium and helium-3, which has an importance in measurement of the neutrino mass. Further mass measurements will be made in support of experiments to determine the fine-structure constant and potential nuclear physics experiments where precise knowledge of energy release in a decay is necessary. Additional measurements of dipole moments and polarizabilities of molecular ions will be made. The second project is precision laser spectroscopy of the fine-structure-Lamb shift transition in hydrogen-like nitrogen ions and helium-like silicon ions. These experiments use highly stable lasers and fast ion beams. These measurements test relativistic quantum electrodynamics atomic theory, particularly of higher-order binding corrections. The broader impact of this work lies in the importance of these measurements to experiments in nuclear and fundamental particle physics and quantum information science. The second important broader impact is the research training of students; the project actively involves high-school students, undergraduates, and graduate students in the research.