Hamburg 2009 – scientific programme
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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 24: Präzisionsmessungen II
Q 24.4: Talk
Tuesday, March 3, 2009, 17:15–17:30, Audi-A
Testing Lorentz Invariance in Vacuum and Matter Using Optical Resonators — •Moritz Nagel1, Katharina Möhle1, Evgeny V. Kovalchuk1, Holger Müller2, and Achim Peters1 — 1Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Institut für Physik, AG Optische Metrologie, Hausvogteiplatz 5-7, 10117 Berlin — 2University of California, Berkeley, Department of Physics, Berkeley, CA 94720-7300
We present a new setup of a Michelson-Morley type experiment in which we compare light propagation in vacuum and matter to search for possible violations of local Lorentz invariance in the Maxwell and Dirac equations. Modern experiments that use optical resonators to probe for Lorentz invariance violations are based on measuring the resonance frequencies ν=qc/(2nL) of the resonator (q is an integer, c is the speed of light, n the index of refraction of the medium, and L the length of the resonator). In our setup, we compare the eigenfrequencies of two crossed fused silica vacuum resonators with the eigenfrequency of a third resonator in which the light is propagating in matter. Thus, any type of Lorentz invariance violation that affects the isotropy of c, L, or n can potentially be detected. Experiments performed in the past did not each by themselves provide enough information to distinguish between the different influences and therefore the results of two experiments had to be combined to obtain separate limits. Our new setup, however, enables us to give independent, simultaneous bounds on a broad range of Lorentz invariance violating coefficients in the Maxwell and Dirac sector in the framework of the Lorentz and CPT violating extension of the standard model of particle physics (SME).