Limits on Lorentz Invariance Violation from Coulomb Interactions in Nuclei and Atoms

Phys Rev Lett. 2017 Apr 7;118(14):142501. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.118.142501. Epub 2017 Apr 3.

Abstract

Anisotropy in the speed of light that has been constrained by Michelson-Morley-type experiments also generates anisotropy in the Coulomb interactions. This anisotropy can manifest itself as an energy anisotropy in nuclear and atomic experiments. Here the experimental limits on Lorentz violation in _{10}^{21}Ne are used to improve the limits on Lorentz symmetry violations in the photon sector, namely, the anisotropy of the speed of light and the Coulomb interactions, by 7 orders of magnitude in comparison with previous experiments: the speed of light is isotropic to a part in 10^{28}.