Recent Experimental Tests of Special Relativity

Abstract

We review our recent Michelson-Morley (MM) and Kennedy-Thorndike (KT) experiment, which tests Lorentz invariance in the photon sector, and report first results of our ongoing atomic clock test of Lorentz invariance in the matter sector. The MM-KT experiment compares a cryogenic microwave resonator to a hydrogen maser, and has set the most stringent limit on a number of parameters in alternative theories to special relativity. We also report first results of a test of Lorentz invariance in the SME (Standard Model Extension) matter sector, using Zeeman transitions in a laser cooled Cs atomic fountain clock. We describe the experiment together with the theoretical model and analysis. Recent experimental results are presented and we give a first estimate of components of the $\tilde{c}^p$ parameters of the SME matter sector. A full analysis of systematic effects is still in progress, and will be the subject of a future publication together with our final results. If confirmed, the present limits would correspond to first ever measurements of some $\tilde{c}^p$ components, and improvements by 11 and 14 orders of magnitude on others.Comment: 29 pages. Contribution to Springer Lecture Notes, "Special Relativity - Will it survive the next 100 years ?", Proceedings, Potsdam, 200