Modern Michelson-Morley experiment using cryogenic optical resonators.
We report on a new test of Lorentz invariance performed by comparing the resonance frequencies of two orthogonal cryogenic optical resonators subject to Earth's rotation over approximately 1 yr. For a possible anisotropy of the speed of light c, we obtain Delta(theta)c/c(0)=(2.6+/-1.7)x10(-15). Within the Robertson-Mansouri-Sexl (RMS) test theory, this implies an isotropy violation parameter beta-delta-1 / 2=(-2.2+/-1.5)x10(-9), about 3 times lower than the best previous result. Within the general extension of the standard model of particle physics, we extract limits on seven parameters at accuracies down to 10(-15), improving the best previous result by about 2 orders of magnitude.
Müller
Holger
H
Institut für Physik, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Hausvogteiplatz 5-7, 10117 Berlin, Germany. holger.mueller@physik.hu-berlin.de
Herrmann
Sven
S
Braxmaier
Claus
C
Schiller
Stephan
S
Peters
Achim
A