Precise measurement of HFS of positronium

The ground state hyperfine splitting in positronium, $\Delta _{\mathrm{HFS}}$, is sensitive to high order corrections of QED. A new calculation up to $O(\alpha ^3)$ has revealed a $3.9 \sigma$ discrepancy between the QED prediction and the experimental results. This discrepancy might either be due to systematic problems in the previous experiments or to contributions beyond the Standard Model. We propose an experiment to measure $\Delta_{\mathrm{HFS}}$ employing new methods designed to remedy the systematic errors which may have affected the previous experiments. Our experiment will provide an independent check of the discrepancy. The measurement is in progress and a preliminary result of $\Delta_{\mathrm{HFS}} = 203.399 \pm 0.029 \mathrm{GHz} (143 \mathrm{ppm})$ has been obtained. A measurement with a precision of O(1) ppm is expected within a few years.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, contributed to POSMOL 2009, will be published in J. Phys.: Conf. Serie

Measurement of Positronium hyperfine splitting with quantum oscillation

Interference between different energy eigenstates in a quantum system results in an oscillation with a frequency which is proportional to the difference in energy between the states. Such an oscillation is observable in polarized positronium when it is placed in a magnetic field. In order to measure the hyperfine splitting of positronium, we perform the precise measurement of this oscillation using a high quality superconducting magnet and fast photon-detectors. A result of $203.324 \pm 0.039\rm{~(stat.)} \pm 0.015\rm{(~sys.)}$~GHz is obtained which is consistent with both theoretical calculations and previous precise measurements.Comment: 4 figures accepted by Phys. Lett.