Nagel Moritz, Parker Stephen R, Kovalchuk Evgeny V, Stanwix Paul L, Hartnett John G, Ivanov Eugene N, Peters Achim, Tobar Michael E
Institut für Physik, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Newtonstrasse 15, 12489 Berlin, Germany.
School of Physics, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Western Australia 6009, Australia.
Nat Commun. 2015 Sep 1;6:8174. doi: 10.1038/ncomms9174.
Lorentz symmetry is a foundational property of modern physics, underlying the standard model of particles and general relativity. It is anticipated that these two theories are low-energy approximations of a single theory that is unified and consistent at the Planck scale. Many unifying proposals allow Lorentz symmetry to be broken, with observable effects appearing at Planck-suppressed levels; thus, precision tests of Lorentz invariance are needed to assess and guide theoretical efforts. Here we use ultrastable oscillator frequency sources to perform a modern Michelson-Morley experiment and make the most precise direct terrestrial test to date of Lorentz symmetry for the photon, constraining Lorentz violating orientation-dependent relative frequency changes Δν/ν to 9.2±10.7 × 10(-19) (95% confidence interval). This order of magnitude improvement over previous Michelson-Morley experiments allows us to set comprehensive simultaneous bounds on nine boost and rotation anisotropies of the speed of light, finding no significant violations of Lorentz symmetry.
洛伦兹对称性是现代物理学的一个基本属性，是粒子标准模型和广义相对论的基础。预计这两种理论是单一理论在低能情况下的近似，该单一理论在普朗克尺度上是统一且自洽的。许多统一理论的提议允许洛伦兹对称性被打破，其可观测效应出现在受普朗克尺度抑制的水平；因此，需要对洛伦兹不变性进行精确测试，以评估和指导理论研究工作。在此，我们使用超稳定振荡器频率源进行了一项现代迈克尔逊 - 莫雷实验，并对光子的洛伦兹对称性进行了迄今为止最精确的直接地面测试，将洛伦兹违反的方向依赖相对频率变化Δν/ν限制在9.2±10.7×10⁻¹⁹（95%置信区间）。相较于之前的迈克尔逊 - 莫雷实验，这一数量级的提升使我们能够对光速的九个推进和旋转各向异性设定全面的同时界限，未发现洛伦兹对称性有明显违反情况。
