Search for Exchange-Antisymmetric Two-Photon States

D. DeMille; D. Budker; N. Derr; E. Deveney

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.83.3978

Search for Exchange-Antisymmetric Two-Photon States

D. DeMille, D. Budker, N. Derr, and E. Deveney

Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 3978 – Published 15 November 1999

Abstract

Atomic two-photon $J = 0 \leftrightarrow J^{'} = 1$ transitions are forbidden for photons of the same energy. This selection rule is related to the fact that photons obey Bose-Einstein statistics. We have searched for small violations of this selection rule by studying transitions in atomic Ba. We set a limit on the probability $v$ that photons are in exchange-antisymmetric states: $v < 1.2 \times 10^{- 7}$ .

Received 12 May 1999

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.83.3978

Authors & Affiliations

D. DeMille¹, D. Budker^2,3, N. Derr^4,*, and E. Deveney^4,†

¹Department of Physics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520
²Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720-7300
³and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720
⁴Department of Physics, Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts 01002

^*Present address: MIT, Lincoln Laboratory, 244 Wood St., Lexington, MA 02420.
^†Present address: Physics Department, Bridgewater State College, Bridgewater, MA 02325.