Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: We investigate the prospects for testing Lorentz symmetry using highly charged ions. We derive the Lorentz-violating energy shifts relevant to Zeeman and Zeeman-hyperfine transitions within the ground state of H-like ions and to Zeeman and Zeeman-fine transitions within the ground state of B-like ions. The resulting signals include sidereal variations through the first harmonic of the sidereal frequency for H-like ions and through the third harmonic for B-like ions. For certain SME coefficients whose contributions scale with the fourth power of the electron momentum, the large electron momentum in H-like ions can provide sensitivity competitive with the best existing bounds at the precision achievable in H-like-ion spectroscopy. We also find that B-like-ion spectroscopy can provide competitive sensitivity to certain SME coefficients.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Author: Vargas, Arnaldo J.
Institution: University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras
Language: English
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: National Science Foundation
OpenAlex ID: W7213893786