Session Y4: Gravity and Cosmology

1:30 PM–3:18 PM, Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront - Grand 3

Sponsoring Unit: DPF
Chair: Natalie Roe, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Abstract ID: BAPS.2007.APR.Y4.1

Abstract: Y4.00001 : Experimental Results on Gravity at Short Distances

1:30 PM–2:06 PM

Preview Abstract

Author:

  Daniel Kapner
    (University of Chicago)

A number of today's most fundamental physical mysteries have gravity at their core. Why is dark energy, known to us through its repulsive gravitational effect, so small or non-zero? Why is gravity's energy scale so drastically different from that of the other fundamental forces? Are there hidden extra dimensions? Small-scale precision gravity experiments are an elegant means of searching for clues about and answers to these questions. I present results from the E\"ot-Wash group at the University of Washington. We conducted three torsion-balance experiments to test the gravitational inverse-square law from separations of 9.53mm down to 55$\mu$m. Our results constrain new gravity-strength yukawa-type interactions to have a length scale $\lambda\le56\mu$m at 95\% confidence.

To cite this abstract, use the following reference: http://meetings.aps.org/link/BAPS.2007.APR.Y4.1