Bremen 2017 – wissenschaftliches Programm

Bereiche | Tage | Auswahl | Suche | Aktualisierungen | Downloads | Hilfe

GR: Fachverband Gravitation und Relativitätstheorie

GR 9: Experimentelle Tests 2

GR 9.3: Vortrag

Mittwoch, 15. März 2017, 17:10–17:30, SFG 0140

BOOST: A Test of Special Relativity — •Lisa Wörner¹, Thilo Schuldt², Norman Gürlebeck¹, Arne Grenzebach¹, Markus Krutzik³, Thijs Wendrich⁴, Nadan Jha⁴, Domenico Geradi⁵, Ulrich Johann⁵, Claus Braxmaier^1,2, Ernst Rasel⁴, Achim Peters³, and the BOOST collaboration^1,2,3,4,5 — ¹ZARM, University of Bremen — ²DLR — ³Humboldt University Berlin — ⁴Leibniz University Hanover — ⁵Airbus Defense and Space

BOOST is a mission that aims at testing the foundations of Special Relativity. The centre piece of BOOST is a Kennedy-Thorndike experiment [1] mounted on a satellite. It is dedicated to detect a potential boost dependence of the speed of light by comparing a length reference (i.e. a highly stable optical resonator) with a molecular frequency reference. Likewise experiments have been performed on Earth. The current best Earth-bound test has been performed by Tobar et al. [2] in 2010, being able to determine the Kennedy-Thorndike coefficient with an accuracy of 4 10⁻⁸. By operating a state-of-the-art experimental setup in space for a duration of two years that accuracy could theoretically be improvement to 1 10⁻¹⁰. With the restrictions induced by the choice of orbit and the achievable stability of the in-build clocks an improvement of the accuracy in the order of two orders of magnitude seems realistic.

[1] R.J. Kennedy, E.M. Thorndike, Physical Review, 42 (1932) 400-418. [2] M.E. Tobar, et al., Physical Review D, 81 (2010) 022003.