Arts & Sciences Events
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Arts & Sciences
[PAST EVENT] Colloquium - Dr. Bogdan Wojtsekhowski
November 20, 2015
4pm - 5pm
Abstract:
The gravitational force at the Plank energy scale leads to a violation in the speed of light isotropy. Such a prediction and the importance of basic symmetries for fundamental forces in nature have motivated a large number of elegant experiments. The high precision limit on the speed of light anisotropy obtained by Michelson in 1887 was the primary experimental foundation for Einstein’s theory of special relativity in 1905. The much-improved measurement by Tobar and collaborators (Nature, 9/2015) achieved a sensitivity 13 orders higher than was done 130 years ago, but shows no evidence for the anisotropy in the round-trip speed of light. In this talk I will describe a concept of a new test of the prediction of the theory of special relativity, specifically a search for the Lorentz force sidereal time variation, which probes a one-way speed of light isotropy with precision approaching the onset of quantum gravity effects. I will present a concept of the experiments at Jefferson Laboratory with the 12-GeV CEBAF accelerator and at Cornell University with the CESR storage ring.
The gravitational force at the Plank energy scale leads to a violation in the speed of light isotropy. Such a prediction and the importance of basic symmetries for fundamental forces in nature have motivated a large number of elegant experiments. The high precision limit on the speed of light anisotropy obtained by Michelson in 1887 was the primary experimental foundation for Einstein’s theory of special relativity in 1905. The much-improved measurement by Tobar and collaborators (Nature, 9/2015) achieved a sensitivity 13 orders higher than was done 130 years ago, but shows no evidence for the anisotropy in the round-trip speed of light. In this talk I will describe a concept of a new test of the prediction of the theory of special relativity, specifically a search for the Lorentz force sidereal time variation, which probes a one-way speed of light isotropy with precision approaching the onset of quantum gravity effects. I will present a concept of the experiments at Jefferson Laboratory with the 12-GeV CEBAF accelerator and at Cornell University with the CESR storage ring.