2010: New constraints on Lorentz invariance violation from the neutron electric dipole moment

EPL 92, 51001 (2010)

Altarev I, Baker CA, Ban G, Bodek K, Daum M, Fertl M, Franke B, Fierlinger P, Geltenbort P, Green K, van der Grinten MGD, Harris PG, Henneck R, Horras M, Iaydjiev P, Ivanov SN, Khomutov N, Kirch K, Kistryn S, Knecht A, Kozela A, Kuchler F, Lauss B, Lefort T, Lemiere Y, Mtchedlishvili A, Naviliat-Cuncic O, Pendlebury JM, Petzoldt G, Pierre E, Piegsa FM, Pignol G, Quemener G, Rebreyend D, Roccia S, Schmidt-Wellenburg P, Severijns N, Shiers D, Smith KF, Zejma J, Zenner J, Zsigmond G
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/92/51001

Abstract

We propose an original test of Lorentz invariance in the interaction between a particle spin and an electromagnetic field and report on a first measurement using ultracold neutrons. We used a high-sensitivity neutron electric dipole moment (nEDM) spectrometer and searched for a direction dependence of an nEDM signal leading to a modulation of its magnitude at periods of 12 and 24 hours. We constrain such a modulation to d12 < 10×10−25e cm and d24 < 14×10−25e cm at 95% C.L. The result translates into a limit on the energy scale for this type of Lorentz violation effect at the level of εLV > 1010 GeV.