Sagnac gyroscopes with increased sensitivity are being developed and operated with a variety of goals including the measurement of General-Relativistic effects. We show that such systems can be used to search for Lorentz violation within the field-theoretic framework of the Standard-Model Extension, and that competitive sensitivities can be achieved. Special deviations from the inverse square law of gravity are among the phenomena that can be effectively sought with these systems. We present the necessary equations to obtain sensitivities to Lorentz violation in relevant experiments.
In this proceedings, similarities between the structure of theories with Lorentz violation and theories with constant torsion in flat spacetime are exploited to place bounds on torsion components. An example is given showing the analysis leading to bounds on the axial-vector and mixed-symmetry components of torsion, based on a dual-maser experiment.
Spacetime nonmetricity can be studied experimentally through its couplings to fermions and photons. We use recent high-precision searches for Lorentz violation to deduce first constraints involving the 40 independent nonmetricity components down to levels of order $10^{-43}$ GeV.
A more complete theoretical model of testing Lorentz violation by the comparison of atomic clocks is developed in the Robertson-Mansouri-Sexl kinematic framework. As this frame postulates the deviation of the coordinate transformation from the Lorentz transformation, from the viewpoint of the transformation violations on time and space, the LI violating effect in the atomic clock comparison can be explained as two parts: time-delay effect $alpha frac {v^2}{c^2}$ and structure effect $-frac {beta+2delta}{3} frac {v^2}{c^2}$. Standard model extension is a widely used dynamic frame to characterize the Lorentz violation, in which a space-orientation dependence violating background field is regarded as the essential reason for the Lorentz violation effect. Compared with the RMS frame which only indicates the kinematic properties with the coordinate transformation, this dynamic frame provides a more complete and clear description for the Lorentz violation effect.
We study the prospects for using interferometers in gravitational-wave detectors as tools to search for photon-sector violations of Lorentz symmetry. Existing interferometers are shown to be exquisitely sensitive to tiny changes in the effective refractive index of light occurring at frequencies around and below the microhertz range, including at the harmonics of the frequencies of the Earths sidereal rotation and annual revolution relevant for tests of Lorentz symmetry. We use preliminary data obtained by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in 2006-2007 to place constraints on coefficients for Lorentz violation in the photon sector exceeding current limits by about four orders of magnitude.