Electromagnetism – To What Degree of Precision Are Atoms Electrically Neutral

atomschargeelectromagnetismerror analysis

It is said that if, say, the electric charge is not a Lorentz invariant, neutral atoms are no longer neutral, which is not experimentally valid. I want to know to what degree of precision atoms are measured to be electrically neutral and what would happen if, say, we assume that an oxygen atom has a superfluous charge of $10^{-30}$ C or $10^{-50}$ C.

Best Answer

See

Bressi, G., et al. "Testing the neutrality of matter by acoustic means in a spherical resonator," Physical Review A 83, (2011): 052101 (DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.83.052101)

as one of the more recent experiments on this topic. The hypothesis has been tested since the 1920s on different materials using $4$ basic methods, and results using one specific methods are reported above. A difference between the proton and electron charges would produce sound in a SF$_6$ gas trapped in a spherical resonator.

Apparently water has not been tested explicitly but other systems, including high-$Z$ systems where relativistic effects could be important, have been investigated. In no case is there evidence that “neutral” matter is not in fact neutral: recent measurements have fractional uncertainties in the range of one part in $10^{-21}$, so roughly $10^{-40}$ C.

(There is also cosmological evidence but I cannot find the reference to this right now.)

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