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Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 043202 (2008) [4 pages]

Enhanced Sensitivity to Variation of me/mp in Molecular Spectra

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D. DeMille1, S. Sainis1, J. Sage1, T. Bergeman2, S. Kotochigova3, and E. Tiesinga4
1Department of Physics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA
2Department of Physics and Astronomy, SUNY, Stony Brook, New York 11794, USA
3Physics Department, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122, USA
4Joint Quantum Institute and Atomic Physics Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899, USA

Received 6 September 2007; published 29 January 2008

We propose new experiments with high sensitivity to a possible variation of the electron-to-proton mass ratio μ≡me/mp. We consider a nearly degenerate pair of molecular vibrational levels, each associated with a different electronic potential. With respect to a change in μ, the change in the splitting between such levels can be large both on an absolute scale and relative to the splitting. We demonstrate the existence of such pairs of states in Cs2, where the narrow spectral lines achievable with ultracold molecules make the system promising for future searches for small variations in μ.

© 2008 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.043202
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.043202
PACS:
06.20.Jr, 33.20.Bx, 33.20.Wr, 37.10.Mn
 
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