Nuclear Physics(DNP)
Physique nucléaire (DPN)
Gerald GWINNER
University of Manitoba
A New Test of the Special Theory of Relativity with the Heidelberg Test Storage Ring
An improved test of time dilation in special relativity has been performed using laser spectroscopy on fast ions at the heavy-ion storage-ring TSR in Heidelberg. The Doppler-shifted frequencies of a two-level transition in 7Li+ ions at v = 0.064c have been measured in forward and backward direction to an accuracy of Dn/n = 1´10-9 using collinear saturation spectroscopy. The result confirms the relativistic Doppler formula and sets a new limit of 2.2´10-7 for deviations from the time dilation factor gSR, a tenfold improvement over other methods. Currently, work is in progress to improve this limit further.