Enhanced sensitivity to variation of $m_e/m_p$ in molecular spectra

Abstract

We propose new experiments with high sensitivity to a possible spatial or temporal variation of the electron-to-proton mass ratio $\mu \equiv m_e/m_p$. We consider a nearly-degenerate pair of molecular vibrational levels, where each state is associated with a different electronic potential. The change in the splitting between such levels, with respect to a change in $\mu$, can be large both on an absolute scale and relative to the splitting. We demonstrate the existence of such pairs of levels in Cs${}_2$. The narrow spectral lines achievable with ultracold Cs${}_2$ in these long-lived levels make this system promising for future searches for small variations in $\mu$.

References in corpus (6)

• Precision Test of Mass Ratio Variations with Lattice-Confined Ultracold Molecules
• Enhanced sensitivity to variation of the fine structure constant and m_p/m_e in diatomic molecules
• Coherent optical transfer of Feshbach molecules to a lower vibrational state
• Enhanced sensitivity to time-variation of m_p/m_e in the inversion spectrum of ammonia
• Efficient creation of molecules from a cesium Bose-Einstein condensate
• Probing variations in fundamental constants with radio and optical quasar absorption-line observations

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Quantum Gas of Deeply Bound Ground State Molecules
• Precision Test of Mass Ratio Variations with Lattice-Confined Ultracold Molecules
• Inelastic collisions of ultra-cold heteronuclear molecules in an optical trap
• Avoided crossings between bound states of ultracold Cesium dimers
• Prospects for application of ultracold Sr${}_2$ molecules in precision measurements
• Phase Separation in two-Species Atomic Bose-Einstein Condensate with Interspecies Feshbach Resonance
• Feshbach-Einstein condensates
• Coulomb energy contribution to the excitation energy in ${}^{229}$Th and enhanced effect of $\alpha$ variation