An international research team has achieved a significant breakthrough in the field of quantum physics by conducting ultra-precise X-ray spectroscopic measurements of helium-like uranium. The team, comprising researchers from Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the Helmholtz Institute Jena in Germany, has successfully disentangled and separately tested one-electron two-loop and two-electron quantum electrodynamic effects for the extremely strong Coulomb fields of the heaviest nuclei for the first time.

Published in the journal Nature, the research paper details fundamental research into the age-old question of what holds our world together at the innermost level. Dr. Robert Lötzsch, an experimental physicist at the Institute of Optics and Quantum Electronics at the University of Jena, highlighted the significance of the measurements being conducted on the heaviest stable atoms.

Dr. Lötzsch explained that while precise measurements for a hydrogen atom, with the atomic number one, can be taken to 13 decimal places, the team achieved measurements for uranium, with the atomic number 92, to five decimal places. The focus of the measurement was on the transition between different orbits, and the experiments were conducted at the GSI/FAIR experimental storage ring in Darmstadt, Germany.

The research team’s accomplishment opens new frontiers in understanding the behavior of heavy atoms at the quantum level, shedding light on the fundamental forces that govern the universe. This groundbreaking work paves the way for further advancements in quantum physics and has the potential to revolutionize our understanding of atomic structure and interactions.