Enhanced sensitivity to variation of the fine structure constant and m_p/m_e in diatomic molecules
Atomic Physics
2008-11-26 v3
Abstract
Sensitivity to temporal variation of the fundamental constants may be strongly enhanced in transitions between narrow close levels of different nature. This enhancement may be realized in a large number of molecules due to cancelation between the ground state fine structure omega_f and vibrational interval omega_v (omega=omega_f - n omega_v is close to zero, delta omega/omega= K (2 delta alpha/alpha +0.5 delta mu/mu), K >>1, mu=m_p/m_e). The intervals between the levels are conveniently located in microwave frequency range and the level widths are very small. Required accuracy of the shift measurements is about 0.01-1 Hz. As examples, we consider molecules Cl_2+, CuS, IrC, SiBr and HfF+.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.0705.0849,
title = {Enhanced sensitivity to variation of the fine structure constant and m_p/m_e in diatomic molecules},
author = {V. V. Flambaum and M. G. Kozlov},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0705.0849},
year = {2008}
}
Comments
v.3: references added + few other minor changes