Hannover 2003 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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GR: Gravitation und Relativitätstheorie
GR XI: HV XI
GR XI.1: Hauptvortrag
Freitag, 28. März 2003, 12:30–13:15, A310
A new test of relativistic time dilation with laser spectroscopy of fast ions in a storage ring — •G. Gwinner1, G. Saathoff1, S. Karpuk2, U. Eisenbarth1, G. Huber2, S. Krohn1, R. Muñoz-Horta1, S. Reinhardt1, D. Schwalm1, M. Weidemüller1, and A. Wolf1 — 1Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany — 2Institut für Physik, Universität Mainz, 55099 Mainz, Germany
The last few years have seen renewed interest in experimental tests of special relativity (SR). We report on a new, improved test of time dilation via the relativistic Doppler-effect. An optical transition with rest-frequency ν in 7Li+ ions, stored at a speed of β=0.065 in the TSR heavy-ion storage ring in Heidelberg, was used. The Doppler-shifted excitation frequencies νp and νa for laser beams travelling parallel and antiparallel with respect to the ions were measured simultaneously using saturation spectroscopy. The resonance conditions ν=γ (1−β)νp and ν=γ (1+β)νa yield the simple relation νp νa = ν 2, if γ = √1−β 2, as predicted by SR. Deviations e.g. caused by the existence of preferred frames are described by test-theories (e.g. Mansouri and Sexl, Gen.Rel. & Gravit. 8, (1977) 497), and can be parametrized by γ = γSR (1+α β2 + ...). By measuring νp and νa close to the 10−10 level, we have determined a new limit of α < 1.8 × 10−7. The storage ring experiments now exceed other types of tests by almost an order of magnitude. Presently, the result is limited by the knowledge of ν, and not by the accuracy of our measurement. A new experiment at the TSR at β = 0.025 will serve as a new rest-frequency measurement and will improve the limit on α further.