Testing New Scalar Interactions in Few-Electron Highly Charged Ions

Abstract

We investigate how a hypothetical scalar boson mediating an interaction between electrons as well as between electrons and nucleons would affect the g factor of lithium-like highly charged ions. In such ions, the strong nuclear Coulomb fields enhance electron-electron interactions, making them ideal systems for detecting subtle new physics signatures. Exceptionally accurate quantum electrodynamic predictions and experimental data in such few-electron systems allow for sensitive probes, thereby enabling bounds on the boson's coupling strength. Exploiting the enhanced sensitivity of highly charged ions to short-range interactions, we combine g-factor measurements and quantum electrodynamic theory predictions of lithium- and hydrogen-like ions with the free-electron magnetic moment and an isotope-shift measurement to constrain simultaneously the electron-proton, electron-neutron, and electron-electron coupling combinations as functions of the scalar mass. We find that precision g-factor spectroscopy provides competitive constraints on scalar interactions over a broad mass range and, in particular, yields bounds on electron-electron interactions from bound-state QED observables.