Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS April Meeting 2018
Volume 63, Number 4
Saturday–Tuesday, April 14–17, 2018; Columbus, Ohio
Session H04: Tests of General RelativityInvited
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Sponsoring Units: DGRAV GPMFC Chair: Clifford Will, University of Florida - Gainesville Room: A120-122 |
Sunday, April 15, 2018 10:45AM - 11:21AM |
H04.00001: Levitated Optomechanics for Precision Gravitational Measurements Invited Speaker: Brian D'Urso We set out to combine a mechanical system in which classical mechanics breaks down and quantum mechanics must be used with a seemingly unlikely application, measurement of the strength and effects of gravity. Our optomechanical system consists of a silica microsphere levitated in ultra-high vacuum in a magneto-gravitational trap. The microsphere is trapped in a magnetic field gradient created by permanent magnets and ferromagnetic pole pieces using the weak diamagnetism of the particle. With optical position measurements and feedback, the mechanical motion can be cooled by several orders of magnitude, ideally reaching the quantum ground state. The extreme sensitivity of this optomechanical system to external forces makes it a promising approach to a new measurement of the Newtonian gravitational constant. Furthermore, by measuring the decoherence rate of non-classiscal motional states of the trapped particle, it may be possible to place limits on theories of gravitational decoherence. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, April 15, 2018 11:21AM - 11:57AM |
H04.00002: The first results of the MICROSCOPE space test of the equivalence principle. Invited Speaker: Manuel Rodrigues The MICROSCOPE space mission aims at testing the (weak) equivalence principle (WEP) with 10$^{\mathrm{-15}}$ precision level. The CNES microsatellite was launched on April 2016 with ONERA instrument on board and, since then, collected more than 2000 useful orbits for the WEP test. The first results are based on only 10{\%} of the current available data and show that no violation is detectable at less than 2x10$^{\mathrm{-14}}$ level, improving by one order of magnitude the current ground experiments. The presentation will focus on these first results, showing how systematic and random errors have been established. These errors should be reduced by a better knowledge of the instrument and the satellite environment to better correct the systematics. Cumulating data will allow us to better reject the random noise. The satellite is managed as a space laboratory of Physics experiments as shown by the mission scenario. In particular, the instrument's scale factor and alignment on-board calibration experiments establish the good repeatability of the tests and the stability of the instrument. In conclusion, the ongoing process to further improve the accuracy will be exposed. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, April 15, 2018 11:57AM - 12:33PM |
H04.00003: TBD Invited Speaker: Jason Hogan |
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