Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 090401 (2009) [4 pages]Laboratory Test of the Isotropy of Light Propagation at the 10-17 LevelReceived 13 June 2008; revised 7 August 2009; published 25 August 2009 We report on the results of a strongly improved test of local Lorentz invariance, consisting of a search for an anisotropy of the resonance frequencies of electromagnetic cavities. The apparatus comprises two orthogonal standing-wave optical cavities interrogated by a laser, which were rotated approximately 175 000 times over the duration of 13 months. The measurements are interpreted as a search for an anisotropy of the speed of light, within the Robertson-Mansouri-Sexl (RMS) and the standard model extension (SME) photon sector test theories. We find no evidence for an isotropy violation at a 1σ uncertainty level of 0.6 parts in 1017 (RMS) and 2 parts in 1017 for seven of eight coefficients of the SME. © 2009 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.090401
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.090401
PACS:
03.30.+p, 11.30.Cp
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