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Recent Experimental Tests of Special Relativity

Peter Wolf·Sebastien Bize·Michael E. Tobar·Frederic Chapelet·Andre Clairon·Andre N. Luiten·Giorgio Santarelli
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Abstract

We review our recent Michelson-Morley (MM) and Kennedy-Thorndike (KT) experiment, which tests Lorentz invariance in the photon sector, and report first results of our ongoing atomic clock test of Lorentz invariance in the matter sector. The MM-KT experiment compares a cryogenic microwave resonator to a hydrogen maser, and has set the most stringent limit on a number of parameters in alternative theories to special relativity. We also report first results of a test of Lorentz invariance in the SME (Standard Model Extension) matter sector, using Zeeman transitions in a laser cooled Cs atomic fountain clock. We describe the experiment together with the theoretical model and analysis. Recent experimental results are presented and we give a first estimate of components of the $\tilde{c}^p$ parameters of the SME matter sector. A full analysis of systematic effects is still in progress, and will be the subject of a future publication together with our final results. If confirmed, the present limits would correspond to first ever measurements of some $\tilde{c}^p$ components, and improvements by 11 and 14 orders of magnitude on others.

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Peter Wolf, Sebastien Bize, Michael E. Tobar, Frederic Chapelet, Andre Clairon, Andre N. Luiten, Giorgio Santarelli. 2005-06-21. Recent Experimental Tests of Special Relativity. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-34523-x_16

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