Isotope Shift Spectroscopy in Mercury Vapors: A Promising Alternative to Ytterbium for New Physics Search
Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 063001 – Published 9 February, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/2qxw-y8df
Abstract
Isotope shift metrology in the deep-UV region has been performed for all bosonic isotopes of mercury with a zero nuclear spin, using the technique of frequency-comb referenced, wavelength-modulated, saturated absorption spectroscopy. The absolute center frequencies of the transition have been measured with precision in the range of in temperature-stabilized Hg vapor samples with natural abundances. Frequency shifts in four isotope pairs have been determined with unprecedented accuracy, the global uncertainty being improved by a factor greater than 20 with respect to the best experimental data of the past literature. Our dataset, when combined with previous measurements on the 6s6p transition at 546 nm, allows us to build a King plot that reveals a nonlinearity with a statistical significance of .