Direct observation of the hyperfine transition of ground-state positronium

We report the first direct measurement of the hyperfine transition of the ground state positronium. The hyperfine structure between ortho-positronium and para-positronium is about 203 GHz. We develop a new optical system to accumulate about 10 kW power using a gyrotron, a mode converter, and a Fabry...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2012-06, Vol.108 (25), p.253401-253401, Article 253401
Main Authors: Yamazaki, T, Miyazaki, A, Suehara, T, Namba, T, Asai, S, Kobayashi, T, Saito, H, Ogawa, I, Idehara, T, Sabchevski, S
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:We report the first direct measurement of the hyperfine transition of the ground state positronium. The hyperfine structure between ortho-positronium and para-positronium is about 203 GHz. We develop a new optical system to accumulate about 10 kW power using a gyrotron, a mode converter, and a Fabry-Pérot cavity. The hyperfine transition has been observed with a significance of 5.4 standard deviations. The transition probability is measured to be A = 3.1(-1.2)(+1.6) × 10(-8) s(-1) for the first time, which is in good agreement with the theoretical value of 3.37 × 10(-8) s(-1).
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/physrevlett.108.253401