Eur. Phys. J. D 22, 41-45 (2003)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2002-00216-x

High-precision mass measurements of hydrogen-like ²⁴Mg¹¹⁺ and ²⁶Mg¹¹⁺ ions in a Penning trap

On the need of precise mass values of hydrogen-like ions in g factor measurements of bound electrons

¹ Manne Siegbahn Laboratory (MSL), Frescativ gen 24, Stockholm University, 104 05 Stockholm, Sweden
² Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (GSI) Darmstadt, Planckstraße 1, 64291 Darmstadt, Germany
³ Atomic Physics, Fysikum, SCFAB, Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden

Corresponding authors: ^a Bergstrom@msi.se - ^b klaus.blaum@cern.ch

Received: 9 April 2002
Revised: 26 August 2002
Published online: 29 October 2002

Abstract

For the determination of the bound-electron g factor in hydrogen-like heavy ions the mass of the ion is needed at a relative uncertainty of at least 1 ppb. With the SMILETRAP Penning trap mass spectrometer at the Manne Siegbahn Laboratory in Stockholm several mass measurements of ions with even-even nuclei at this level of precision have been performed so far, exploiting the fact that the mass precision increases linearly with the ion charge. Measurements of masses of the hydrogen-like ions of the two Mg-isotopes ²⁴Mg and ²⁶Mg are reported. The masses of the hydrogen-like ions are  u and  u, corresponding to the atomic masses  u and  u, respectively. The possibility to use these two isotopes for the first observation of an isotope effect in the bound-electron g factor in hydrogen-like heavy ions is discussed.