Experimental Test of Relativistic Time Dilation by Laser Spectroscopy of Fast Ions

The present thesis deals with a modern version of the classical Ives-Stilwell experiment, which measures relativistic time dilation via the transverse Doppler effect. A deviation from the prediction given by Special Relativity would disprove the Relativity Principle and, therefore, single out a physically preferred reference frame. In order to enhance the accuracy of previous experiments in this sector, the systematics of two Doppler-free techniques of collinear laser spectroscopy on a fast (v=0.064c) ion beam in a storage ring have been investigated. The first technique, Lambda-spectroscopy on a closed Lambda-type three-level system, suffered from a strong, hitherto unaccounted line broadening in a previous test experiment. In this work this line broadening has been shown to be caused by processes changing the velocity of the ions during several to many roundtrips in the storage ring. Additionally, a method has been developed to supress this broadening. The second technique investigated is saturation spectroscopy, which turned out to be insensitive to velocity-changing processes. Together with the reduction of systematic errors the application of saturation spectroscopy has lead to a new upper limit for deviations from special relativistic time dilation, that improves the hitherto best value by a factor of 4.

Level thesis:degree_level

thesis.doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher

Universität Heidelberg

Year

2002

Author dc:creator

• Saathoff, Guido

Contributors dc:contributor

• Schwalm, Dirk

Repository record source_url

http://www.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/archiv/3072

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de:3072