Testing spatial noncommutativity via Rydberg atoms.
The possibility of testing spatial noncommutativity via Rydberg atoms is explored. An atomic di-pole of a cold Rydberg atom is arranged in appropriate electric and magnetic fields, so that the motion of the dipole is constrained to be planar and rotationally symmetric. Spatial noncommutativity leads the canonical angular momentum to possess fractional values. In the limit of vanishing kinetic energy, the dominate value of the lowest canonical angular momentum takes variant Planck's over h/2. Furthermore, in the limit of eliminating the magnetic field, the dominate value of the lowest canonical angular momentum changes from variant Planck's over h/2 to variant Planck's over h/4. This result is a clear signal of spatial noncommutativity. An experimental verification of this prediction is suggested.
Zhang
Jian-Zu
JZ
Institute for Theoretical Physics, East China University of Science and Technology, Box 316, Shanghai 200237, People's Republic of China. jzzhang@ecust.edu.cn