Published June 25, 2010 | Version v1
Journal article

Spectroscopic Test of Bose-Einstein Statistics for Photons

  • 1. Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720-7300 (United States)
  • 2. Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720 (United States)
  • 3. Nuclear Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720 (United States)

Description

Using Bose-Einstein-statistics-forbidden two-photon excitation in atomic barium, we have limited the rate of statistics-violating transitions, as a fraction ν of an equivalent statistics-allowed transition rate, to ν<4.0x10-11 at the 90% confidence level. This is an improvement of more than 3 orders of magnitude over the best previous result. Additionally, hyperfine-interaction enabling of the forbidden transition has been observed, to our knowledge, for the first time.

Additional details

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Physical Review Letters
Journal Volume
104
Journal Issue
25
Journal Page Range
p. 253604-253604.4
ISSN
0031-9007
CODEN
PRLTAO

INIS

Country of Publication
United States
Country of Input or Organization
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
INIS RN
42003601
Subject category
S74: ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS; S73: NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS;
Descriptors DEI
BARIUM; BOSE-EINSTEIN STATISTICS; EXCITATION; FORBIDDEN TRANSITIONS; PHOTONS; SPECTROSCOPY
Descriptors DEC
ALKALINE EARTH METALS; BOSONS; ELEMENTARY PARTICLES; ELEMENTS; ENERGY-LEVEL TRANSITIONS; MASSLESS PARTICLES; METALS

Optional Information

Notes
(c) 2010 The American Physical Society