Postselection shifts the transition frequency of helium in an atomic beam

Abstract

Postselecting output states can effectively amplify weak signals in measurements. However, the postselection (PS) effect may also introduce unintended biases in precision measurements. Here, we investigate the influence of PS in the precision spectroscopy of the 2³S − 2³P transition of helium (⁴He) using an atomic beam. We directly observe that PS based on atomic positions causes a shift in the measured transition frequency, amounting to approximately −55 kHz. After accounting for this PS shift, we obtain a corrected frequency of 276,764,094,712.45 ± 0.86 kHz for the 2³S₁ − 2³P₀ transition. Combining this result with existing data for ³He, we derive a value for the difference in squared nuclear charge radii, which shows a σ deviation from measurements of muonic helium ions, potentially pointing to new physics that challenges lepton universality in quantum electrodynamics.