Title :
Improvement of the fine-structure constant obtained from the electron g-2
Author :
Kinoshita, Toichiro
Author_Institution :
Newman Lab. of Nucl. Studies, Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY, USA
fDate :
4/1/2001 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
At present the most precise value of the fine-structure constant is α(ae) obtained from the anomalous magnetic moment of the electron, or the electron g-2. Further improvement in the theoretical calculation of α(ae) requires reduction of both statistical and nonstatistical uncertainties in the Monte-Carlo evaluation of the α4 term. This paper analyzes some inconsistency of earlier results and identifies its source as a deviation of nonstatistical nature caused by round-off errors. This information enables us to greatly improve the statistical basis of the electron g-2 value to very high statistics while minimizing the uncertainty of the nonstatistical type. This work will lead to a value of α(ae) with a relative uncertainty of less than 10 -9 when new measurements become available
Keywords :
Monte Carlo methods; constants; fine structure; magnetic moments; Monte-Carlo evaluation; anomalous magnetic moment; fine-structure constant; nonstatistical uncertainties; relative uncertainty; round-off errors; statistical uncertainties; Atomic beams; Atomic measurements; Electrons; Equations; Helium; Magnetic analysis; Magnetic moments; Physics; Statistics; Uncertainty;
Journal_Title :
Instrumentation and Measurement, IEEE Transactions on