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Phys. Rev. Lett. 71, 2364–2366 (1993)

New experimental limits to the time variations of gp(me/mp) and α

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A. Godone, C. Novero, and P. Tavella
Istituto Elettrotecnico Nazionale Galileo Ferraris, Strada delle Cacce 91, 10135 Torino, Italy

K. Rahimullah
Aligarh Muslim University, 202002 Aligarh, India

Received 21 April 1993; published in the issue dated 11 October 1993

A new experimental limit to the possible time variation of the proton gyromagnetic ratio times the electron-to-proton mass ratio has been obtained from the frequency comparison data between Cs and Mg atomic beam standards. The measurements, made over a period of one year, lead to an upper limit for the rate of change of gp(me/mp) of 5.4×10-3/yr. This result, based only on the validity of the quantum mechanical theory of the atomic spectra, together with astrophysical data regarding analogous products of atomic fundamental constants, leads also to a new limit for the time stability of the fine structure constant α (2.7×10-13/yr).

© 1993 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.71.2364
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.71.2364
PACS:
06.20.Jr, 13.40.Fn, 14.20.Dh