Studies with Ultracold Hydrogen

Massachusetts Institute Of Technology, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

The creation of Bose-Einstein condensates of hydrogen and the development of new techniques for the spectroscopy of ultracold hydrogen have opened new opportunities for basic studies in atomic physics. A new determination of the Lamb Shift in hydrogen and Rydberg Constant of hydrogen will be carried out, based on two-photon Doppler-free spectroscopy of the transition 2S-10n, where n is in the range of 10-12. Such a measurement, combined with new studies to determine the proton radius, could help resolve questions about possible limitations to QED. Related studies include determinations of scattering lengths for excited and ground state cold collisions in hydrogen, and photoassociation spectroscopy. On the broader impact, the ultra-precise optical frequency measurements proposed for hydrogen are loosely associated with the group's investigations of hydrogen for a new type of optical frequency standard, which has the potential of providing several orders of magnitude improvement in the performance of atomic clocks.