Precise measurement of positronium hyperfine splitting using the Zeeman effect

Abstract

Positronium is an ideal system for the research of the quantum electrodynamics (QED) in bound state. The hyperfine splitting (HFS) of positronium, ΔHFS, gives a good test of the bound state calculations and probes new physics beyond the Standard Model. A new method of QED calculations has revealed the discrepancy by 15 ppm (3.9σ) of ΔHFS between the QED prediction and the experimental average. There would be possibility of new physics or common systematic uncertainties in the previous all experiments. We describe a new experiment to reduce possible systematic uncertainties and will provide an independent check of the discrepancy. We are now taking data and the current result of ΔHFS = 203.395 1 ±0.002 4 (stat., 12 ppm) ±0.001 9 (sys., 9.5 ppm) GHz has been obtained so far. A measurement with a precision of O(ppm) is expected within a year.