Precision Atomic Spectroscopy for Improved Limits on Variation of the Fine Structure Constant and Local Position Invariance
- P-23 Physics Division MS H803, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 (United States)
- Time and Frequency Division MS 847, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, Colorado 80305 (United States)
We report tests of local position invariance and the variation of fundamental constants from measurements of the frequency ratio of the 282-nm {sup 199}Hg{sup +} optical clock transition to the ground state hyperfine splitting in {sup 133}Cs. Analysis of the frequency ratio of the two clocks, extending over 6 yr at NIST, is used to place a limit on its fractional variation of <5.8x10{sup -6} per change in normalized solar gravitational potential. The same frequency ratio is also used to obtain 20-fold improvement over previous limits on the fractional variation of the fine structure constant of |({alpha}/{alpha})|<1.3x10{sup -16} yr{sup -1}, assuming invariance of other fundamental constants. Comparisons of our results with those previously reported for the absolute optical frequency measurements in H and {sup 171}Yb{sup +} vs other {sup 133}Cs standards yield a coupled constraint of -1.5x10{sup -15}<{alpha}/{alpha}<0.4x10{sup -15} yr{sup -1} and -2.7x10{sup -15}<(d/dt)ln({mu}{sub Cs}/{mu}{sub B})<8.6x10{sup -15} yr{sup -1}.
- OSTI ID:
- 20955459
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 98, Issue 7; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.070801; (c) 2007 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0031-9007
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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