- Letter
Mass of helium-4 from cyclotron frequency ratios and
Phys. Rev. A 112, L040801 – Published 21 October, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/v7k8-8my2
Abstract
An accurate atomic mass of (or the alpha particle) is required for deriving the atomic mass of the electron from proposed measurements of the ground-state factor of . However, there is a six-standard deviation discrepancy between a recent measurement [S. Sasidharan, O. Bezrodnova, S. Rau, W. Quint, S. Sturm, and K. Blaum, Phys. Rev. Lett. 131, 093201 (2023)] and the measurement by Van Dyck et al. [R. S. Van Dyck, Jr., D. B. Pinegar, S. Van Liew, and S. L. Zafonte, Int. J. Mass Spectrom. 251, 231 (2006)], on which the current values in the Atomic Mass Evaluation and CODATA tabulation of fundamental constants are based. By measuring the cyclotron frequency ratios of to , and of to , we find the mass of to be , favoring the more recent value.