A Determination of the Fine Structure Constant Using Precision Measurements of Helium Fine Structure Metadata

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Title

  • Main Title A Determination of the Fine Structure Constant Using Precision Measurements of Helium Fine Structure

Creator

  • Author: Smiciklas, Marc
    Creator Type: Personal

Contributor

  • Chair: Shiner, David C.
    Contributor Type: Personal
    Contributor Info: Major Professor
  • Committee Member: Weathers, Duncan L.
    Contributor Type: Personal
  • Committee Member: Mueller, Dennis W.
    Contributor Type: Personal
  • Committee Member: Perez, Jose
    Contributor Type: Personal

Publisher

  • Name: University of North Texas
    Place of Publication: Denton, Texas

Date

  • Creation: 2010-08

Language

  • English

Description

  • Content Description: Spectroscopic measurements of the helium atom are performed to high precision using an atomic beam apparatus and electro-optic laser techniques. These measurements, in addition to serving as a test of helium theory, also provide a new determination of the fine structure constant α. An apparatus was designed and built to overcome limitations encountered in a previous experiment. Not only did this allow an improved level of precision but also enabled new consistency checks, including an extremely useful measurement in 3He. I discuss the details of the experimental setup along with the major changes and improvements. A new value for the J = 0 to 2 fine structure interval in the 23P state of 4He is measured to be 31 908 131.25(30) kHz. The 300 Hz precision of this result represents an improvement over previous results by more than a factor of three. Combined with the latest theoretical calculations, this yields a new determination of α with better than 5 ppb uncertainty, α-1 = 137.035 999 55(64).
  • Physical Description: vi, 71 p. : ill.

Subject

  • Library of Congress Subject Headings: Helium.
  • Keyword: precision measurements
  • Keyword: fine structure
  • Keyword: spectroscopy
  • Library of Congress Subject Headings: Fine-structure constant.

Collection

  • Name: UNT Theses and Dissertations
    Code: UNTETD

Institution

  • Name: UNT Libraries
    Code: UNT

Rights

  • Rights Access: public
  • Rights License: copyright
  • Rights Holder: Smiciklas, Marc
  • Rights Statement: Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.

Resource Type

  • Thesis or Dissertation

Format

  • Text

Identifier

  • OCLC: 712024682
  • UNT Catalog No.: b3968854
  • Archival Resource Key: ark:/67531/metadc31547

Degree

  • Degree Name: Doctor of Philosophy
  • Degree Level: Doctoral
  • Degree Discipline: Physics
  • Academic Department: Department of Physics
  • Degree Grantor: University of North Texas

Note

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