Speaker:  Professor Gerald Gwinner, University of Manitoba

Title:   Atomic clocks at 7% of the speed of light - testing time dilation at a heavy-ion storage ring

Abstract:  An improved test of time dilation in special relativity has been performed using laser spectroscopy on fast ions at the heavy-ion storage-ring TSR in Heidelberg. The Doppler-shifted frequencies of a two-level transition in ⁷Li⁺ ions at v = 0.064c have been measured in forward and backward direction to an accuracy of Δν = 1 × 10^-9 using collinear saturation spectroscopy. The result confirms the relativistic Doppler formula and sets a new limit of 2.2 × 10^-7 for deviations from the time dilation factor γ_SR = (1 - v²/c²)^-1/2. Currently, work is in progress to improve this limit further.

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