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Testing isotropy of the universe using the Ramsey resonance technique on ultracold neutron spins

Atomic Physics 2011-11-09 v1 High Energy Physics - Experiment Nuclear Experiment

Abstract

Physics at the Planck scale could be revealed by looking for tiny violations of fundamental symmetries in low energy experiments. In 2008, a sensitive test of the isotropy of the Universe using has been performed with stored ultracold neutrons (UCN), this is the first clock-comparison experiment performed with free neutrons. During several days we monitored the Larmor frequency of neutron spins in a weak magnetic field using the Ramsey resonance technique. An non-zero cosmic axial field, violating rotational symmetry, would induce a daily variation of the precession frequency. Our null result constitutes one of the most stringent tests of Lorentz invariance to date.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1009.6060,
  title  = {Testing isotropy of the universe using the Ramsey resonance technique on ultracold neutron spins},
  author = {I. Altarev and G. Ban and G. Bison and K. Bodek and M. Daum and M. Fertl and P. Fierlinger and B. Franke and E. Gutsmiedl and W. Heil and R. Henneck and M. Horras and N. Khomutov and K. Kirch and S. Kistryn and A. Kraft and A. Knecht and P. Knowles and A. Kozela and T. Lauer and B. Lauss and T. Lefort and Y. Lemière and A. Mtchedlishvili and O. Naviliat-Cuncic and A. Pazgalev and G. Petzoldt and F. M. Piegsa and E. Pierre and G. Pignol and G. Quéméner and M. Rebetez and D. Rebreyend and S. Roccia and P. Schmidt-Wellenburg and N. Severijns and Yu. Sobolev and A. Weis and J. Zejma and J. Zenner and G. Zsigmond},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1009.6060},
  year   = {2011}
}

Comments

proceedings of the PNCMI2010 conference