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Ultracold molecules: new probes on the variation of fundamental constants

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Published 14 May 2009 Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd
, , Focus on Cold and Ultracold Molecules Citation Cheng Chin et al 2009 New J. Phys. 11 055048DOI 10.1088/1367-2630/11/5/055048

1367-2630/11/5/055048

Abstract

Ultracold molecules offer brand new opportunities to probe the variation of fundamental constants with unprecedented sensitivity. This paper summarizes theoretical background and current constraints on the variation of the fine structure constant and electron-to-proton mass ratio, as well as proposals and experimental efforts to measure the variations based on ultracold molecules. In particular, we describe two novel spectroscopic schemes on ultracold molecules that have greatly enhanced sensitivity to fundamental constants: resonant scattering near Feshbach resonances and spectroscopy on close-lying energy levels of ultracold molecules.

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10.1088/1367-2630/11/5/055048
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