Abstract
According to the weak equivalence principle, all bodies should fall at the same rate in a gravitational field. The MICROSCOPE satellite, launched in April 2016, aims to test its validity at the precision level, by measuring the force required to maintain two test masses (of titanium and platinum alloys) exactly in the same orbit. A nonvanishing result would correspond to a violation of the equivalence principle, or to the discovery of a new long-range force. Analysis of the first data gives ( statistical uncertainty) for the titanium-platinum Eötvös parameter characterizing the relative difference in their free-fall accelerations.
- Received 12 May 2017
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.231101
© 2017 American Physical Society
Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)
Synopsis
Space Tests of the Equivalence Principle
Published 4 December 2017
The MICROSCOPE satellite mission has tested the equivalence principle with unprecedented precision, showing no deviations from the predictions of general relativity.
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