Testing Electron Boost Invariance with 2S-1S Hydrogen Spectroscopy

Abstract

There are few good direct laboratory tests of boost invariance for electrons, because the experiments required often involve repeated precision measurements performed at different times of year. However, existing measurements and remeasurements of the 2S-1S two-photon transition frequency in H--which were done to search for a time variation in the fine structure constant--also constitute a measurement of the boost symmetry violation parameter 0.83c_(TX) + 0.51c_(TY) + 0.22c_(TZ) = (4 +/- 8) x 10^(-11). This is an eight order of magnitude improvement over preexisting laboratory bounds, and with only one additional measurements, this system could yield a second comparable constraint.