Improved Test of Lorentz Invariance in Electrodynamics

Abstract

We report new results of a test of Lorentz invariance based on the comparison of a cryogenic sapphire microwave resonator and a hydrogen maser. The experimental results are shown together with an extensive analysis of systematic effects. Previously, this experiment has set the most stringent constraint on Kennedy-Thorndike type violations of Lorentz invariance. In this work we present new data and interpret our results in the general Lorentz violating extension of the standard model of particle physics (SME). Within the photon sector of the SME, our experiment is sensitive to seven SME parameters. We marginally improve present limits on four of these, and by a factor 7 to 10 on the other three.

accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. D, rapid communications