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Phys. Rev. D 80, 016002 (2009) [12 pages]

Atom interferometry tests of local Lorentz invariance in gravity and electrodynamics

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Keng-Yeow Chung
Physics Department, National University of Singapore, 2 Science Drive 3, Singapore 117542

Sheng-wey Chiow
Physics Department, 382 Via Pueblo Mall, Stanford, California 94305, USA

Sven Herrmann
ZARM - University of Bremen Am Fallturm/Hochschulring, 28359 Bremen, Germany

Steven Chu
Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, One Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, California 94720, USA

Holger Müller*
Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA

Received 12 May 2009; published 6 July 2009

See accompanying Physics Viewpoint

We present atom-interferometer tests of the local Lorentz invariance of post-Newtonian gravity. An experiment probing for anomalous vertical gravity on Earth, which has already been performed, uses the highest-resolution atomic gravimeter so far. The influence of Lorentz violation in electrodynamics is also taken into account, resulting in combined bounds on Lorentz violation in gravity and electrodynamics. Expressed within the standard model extension or Nordtvedt’s anisotropic universe model, we limit 12 linear combinations of seven coefficients for Lorentz violation at the part per billion level, from which we derive limits on six coefficients (and seven when taking into account additional data from lunar laser ranging). We also discuss the use of horizontal interferometers, including atom-chip or guided-atom devices, which potentially allow the use of longer coherence times in order to achieve higher sensitivity.

© 2009 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevD.80.016002
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevD.80.016002
PACS:
04.80.Cc, 03.75.Dg, 04.25.Nx, 11.30.Cp

*hm@berkeley.edu

 
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