Test for the time independence of the fine structure constant, α, using cryogenic sapphire resonators at microwave frequencies

摘要

A new experiment to test for the time independence of the fine structure constant, a, is proposed. The experiment utilizes different polarized modes in a sapphire resonator. When configured as a dual mode sapphire clock, we show that it is possible to undertake a sensitive measurement from the beat frequency between the two modes.