Recent Experimental Tests of Special Relativity

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent high-precision tests of Lorentz invariance in both photon and matter sectors, using advanced experimental setups, setting new stringent limits on possible deviations from special relativity.

Contribution

It reports the first results of an atomic clock test of Lorentz invariance in the matter sector and improves limits on SME parameters, advancing experimental constraints on special relativity.

Findings

Most stringent limit on parameters in alternative theories to special relativity.

First measurements of some SME matter sector parameters.

Potential improvements in constraints by 11 and 14 orders of magnitude.

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.