Separated Oscillatory Field Measurement of the Lamb Shift in H,<i>n</i>= 2

Abstract

This paper reports a precision measurement of the 22S1/2-22P1/2 Lamb-shift interval in hydrogen. The fast-beam, separated-oscillatory-field technique was used to obtain resonances that were significantly narrower than the natural linewidth of the transition. The resonances were observed in zero magnetic field by varying the frequency of the microwave field. The final result, f (H, n = 2) = 1057.845(9) MHz, is in good agreement with other measurements of this interval. There is sufficient uncertainty in the theoretical value that one cannot make a definitive comparison with theory at the level of precision of this experiment.