Probing the Planck Scale in Low-Energy Atomic Physics

Abstract

Experiments in atomic physics have exceptional sensitivity to small shifts in energy in an atom, ion, or bound particle. They are particularly well suited to search for unique low-energy signatures of new physics, including effects that could originate from the Planck scale. A number of recent experiments have used CPT and Lorentz violation as a candidate signal of new physics originating from the Planck scale. A discussion of these experiments and their theoretical implications is presented.

Comments: 10 pages, latex, talk presented at the Second Meeting on CPT and Lorentz Symmetry, Bloomington, IN, August 2001