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Updated: Jul 7, 2026

The Generation of Higher-order Laguerre-Gauss Optical Beams for High-precision Interferometry
Published on: August 12, 2013
Atom-interferometry tests of the isotropy of post-Newtonian gravity
Holger Müller1, Sheng-wey Chiow, Sven Herrmann
1Physics Department, Stanford University, 382 Via Pueblo Mall, Stanford, CA 94305, USA. holgerm@stanford.edu
Abstract:
We present a test of the local Lorentz invariance of post-Newtonian gravity by monitoring Earth's gravity with a Mach-Zehnder atom interferometer that features a resolution of up to 8 x 10{-9}g/sqrt[Hz], the highest reported thus far. Expressed within the standard model extension (SME) or Nordtvedt's anisotropic universe model, the analysis limits four coefficients describing anisotropic gravity at the ppb level and three others, for the first time, at the 10 ppm level. Using the SME we explicitly demonstrate how the experiment actually compares the isotropy of gravity and electromagnetism.
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