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TOPIC: Principle of equivalence

Blobrana

L

Posts: 131433

Date: Jun 6 21:32 2012

Weak equivalence principle	Permalink

Title: Design and characteristics of a WEP test in a sounding-rocket payload Authors: Robert D. Reasenberg, Biju R. Patla, James D. Phillips, Rajesh Thapa We describe SR-POEM, a Galilean test of the weak equivalence principle that is to be conducted during the free fall portion of the flight of a sounding rocket payload. This test of a single pair of substances will have a measurement uncertainty of \sigma (\eta) < 2 10^17 after averaging the results of eight separate drops, each of 120 s duration. The entire payload is inverted between successive drops to cancel potential sources of systematic error. The weak equivalence principle measurement is made with a set of four of the SAO laser gauges, which have achieved an Allan deviation of 0.04 pm for an averaging time of 30 s. We discuss aspects of the current design with an emphasis on those that bear on the accuracy of the determination of \eta. The discovery of a violation (\eta \neq 0) would have profound implications for physics, astrophysics and cosmology. Read more (369kb, PDF) __________________

Blobrana

L

Posts: 131433

Date: Jan 7 14:55 2008

Principle of equivalence	Permalink

Not every physicist has to wear a hard hat to work. But when Stanford University physics professor Mark Kasevich and two of his graduate students, Jason Hogan and David Johnson, descend into the 25-foot pit containing their experiment, they take the necessary precautions. Located in the basement of the university's Varian Physics Building, the 8-foot diameter pit is where the team is currently testing Albert Einstein's principle of equivalence, or the idea that objects of different mass still fall at the same speed under gravity. The principle, which has been tentatively reopened by the physics community, is a key part of Einstein's general theory of relativity. Read more __________________

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