Ground-state hyperfine structure of heavy hydrogen-like ions

Contributions of quantum electrodynamics (QED) to the combined electric and magnetic interaction between the electron and the nucleus can be studied by optical spectroscopy in high-Z hydrogen-like heavy ions. The transition studied is the groundstate hyperfine structure transition, well known from the 21 cm line in atomic hydrogen. The hyperfine splitting of the is ground state of hydrogen-like systems constitutes the simplest and most basic magnetic interaction in atomic physics. The Z3-increase leads to a transition energy in the UV-region of the optical spectrum for the case of Bi82+. At the same time, the QED correction rises to nearly 1 fraction of higher order contributions. This situation is particularly useful for a comparison with non-perturbative QED calculations. The combination of exceptionally intense electric and magnetic fields is unique. This transition has become accessible to precision laser spectroscopy at the high-energy heavy-ion storage ring at GSI-Darmstadt in the hydrogen-like 209Bi82+ and 207Pb81+. In the meantime, 165Ho66+ and 185,187Re74+ were also studied with reduced resolution by conventional optical spectroscopy at the SuperEBIT ion trap at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory