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arxiv: 1006.1376 · v1 · submitted 2010-06-07 · ✦ hep-ph · gr-qc· physics.data-an

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Improved Constraints on Isotropic Shift and Anisotropies of the Speed of Light using Rotating Cryogenic Sapphire Oscillators

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classification ✦ hep-ph gr-qcphysics.data-an
keywords lightspeedisotropickappashifttildeanalysisanisotropies
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We demonstrate that Michelson-Morley tests, which detect direction-dependent anisotropies in the speed of light, can also be used to place limits upon isotropic deviations of the vacuum speed of light from $c$, as described by the photon sector Standard Model Extension (SME) parameter $\tilde{\kappa}_{tr}$. A shift in the speed of light that is isotropic in one inertial frame implies anisotropic shifts in others. Using observer Lorentz covariance, we derive the time-dependent variations in the relative resonance frequencies of a pair of electromagnetic resonators that would be generated by such a shift in the rest frame of the Sun. A new analysis of a recent experimental test of relativity using this result constrains $\tilde{\kappa}_{tr}$ with a precision of $7.4\times10^{-9}$. This represents the first constraint on $\tilde{\kappa}_{tr}$ by a Michelson-Morley experiment and the first analysis of a single experiment to simultaneously set limits on all nine non-birefringent terms in the photon sector of the SME.

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