Null Test of Newton's Law of Gravitation on a 100-Micrometer Scale

100微米尺度牛顿万有引力定律的零检验

• 批准号: 0244966
• 负责人: Ho Jung Paik
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Maryland, College Park
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2003
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2003-06-01 至 2009-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0244966&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Null; Test; Newton; Law; Gravitation

The objective of this research is to test Newton's inverse-square law of gravitation with a resolution of 1 part in 1000 in the range near 100 micrometers. To reach this sensitivity, the experiment will be cooled to 1.2 K and a highly sensitive superconducting accelerometer will be used to search for a signal from a carefully designed gravitational null source.Newton's law is a cornerstone of Einstein's General Relativity. However, this celebrated law has been challenged from several fronts of particle theories. In particular, a possible violation of the law at sub-millimeter ranges has recently been suggested by string theories. Confirmation or rejection of this prediction would have a major impact on our understanding of the universe.

本研究的目的是在100微米附近的范围内以1/1000的分辨率测试牛顿的平方反比引力定律。为了达到这种灵敏度，实验将被冷却到1.2 K，并将使用一个高灵敏度的超导加速度计来搜索来自精心设计的引力零源的信号。牛顿定律是爱因斯坦广义相对论的基石。然而，这个著名的定律受到了粒子理论的几个方面的挑战。特别是，最近弦理论提出在亚毫米范围内可能违反定律。这个预言的证实或否定将对我们对宇宙的理解产生重大影响。