Test of the anisotropy method for Lamb-shift measurements—theory and experiment

Abstract

We show that a measurement of the anisotropy in the angular distribution of the quenching radiation emitted by metastable hydrogen and deuterium atoms in an electric field can be used to determine the Lamb shift to an accuracy of at least ±0.1%. The method can be extended to the hydrogenic ions, where it offers several advantages over the quench-rate technique used in earlier measurements. The experiment is interpreted by means of a nonperturbative theory of the quenching process, which includes hyperfine structure and time-dependent effects. In the limit of zero field strength, the anisotropies of H and D are measured to be 0.139 01 ± 0.000 12 and 0.141 21 ± 0.000 14, while the theoretical values are 0.139 078 and 0.141 30, respectively. The corresponding Lamb shifts are 1057.3 ± 0.9 MHz and 1058.7 ± 1.1 MHz.