8:00 AM–10:24 AM, Thursday, May 29, 2008
Keller Building - 104
Chair: Neil Russell, Northern Michigan University
8:00 AM–8:36 AM
Alan Kostelecky
(Indiana University)
Einstein's theories of special and general relativity are a key component of our best existing description of nature at the fundamental level. However, tiny deviations from the laws of relativity could arise from a unified theory of quantum physics and gravity. The resulting experimental effects are described by a theory called the Standard-Model Extension. The SME predicts observable signals now being sought in a variety of experiments using high-sensitivity AMO techniques. In this talk, some basic ideas about relativity violations will be described and a status report on the experimental searches will be given.