Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 081801 (2003) [4 pages]New Experimental Limit on the Photon Rest Mass with a Rotating Torsion Balance
A rotating torsion balance method is used to detect the product of the photon mass squared and the ambient cosmic vector potential Ae. The signal is modulated by rotating the torsion balance to ensure the effectiveness of detection for all possible orientations of the vector potential. The influences of sidereal disturbances of environment are also removed by virtue of this modulation method. The experimental result shows μγ2Ae<1.1×10-11 T m/m2, with μγ-1 as the characteristic length associated with photon mass. If the ambient cosmic vector potential Ae is 1012 T m due to cluster level fields, we obtain a new upper limit on photon mass of 1.2×10-51 g. © 2003 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.90.081801
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.90.081801
PACS:
12.20.Fv, 14.70.Bh, 98.80.Cq
See AlsoReply: Alfred Scharff Goldhaber and Michael Martin Nieto, Problems with the Rotating-Torsion-Balance Limit on the Photon Mass, Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 149101 (2003). Reply: Jun Luo, Liang-Cheng Tu, Zhong-Kun Hu, and En-Jie Luan, Luo et al. Reply:, Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 149102 (2003). |
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