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Register a new userAPOLLO: the Apache Point Observatory Lunar Laser-ranging Operation: Instrument Description and First Detections
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A next-generation lunar laser ranging apparatus using the 3.5 m telescope at the Apache Point Observatory in southern New Mexico has begun science operation. APOLLO (the Apache Point Observatory Lunar Laser-ranging Operation) has achieved one-millimeter range precision to the moon which should lead to approximately one-order-of-magnitude improvements in the precision of several tests of fundamental properties of gravity. We briefly motivate the scientific goals, and then give a detailed discussion of the APOLLO instrumentation.
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The Earth-Moon-Sun system has traditionally provided the best laboratory for testing the strong equivalence principle. For a decade, the Apache Point Observatory Lunar Laser-ranging Operation (APOLLO) has been producing the worlds best lunar laser ranging data. At present, a single observing session of about an hour yields a distance measurement with uncertainty of about 2~mm, an order of magnitude advance over the best pre-APOLLO lunar laser ranging data. However, these superb data have not yet yielded scientific results commensurate with their accuracy, number, and temporal distribution. There are two reasons for this. First, even in the relatively clean environment of the Earth-Moon system, a large number of effects modify the measured distance importantly and thus need to be included in the analysis model. The second reason is more complicated. The traditional problem with the analysis of solar-system metric data is that the physical model must be truncated to avoid extra parameters that would increase the condition number of the estimator. Even in a typical APOLLO analysis that does not include parameters of gravity physics, the condition number is very high: $8 times 10^{10}$.
Lunar laser ranging (LLR) has made major contributions to our understanding of the Moons internal structure and the dynamics of the Earth-Moon system. Because of the recent improvements of the ground-based laser ranging facilities, the present LLR measurement accuracy is limited by the retro-reflectors currently on the lunar surface, which are arrays of small corner-cubes. Because of lunar librations, the surfaces of these arrays do not, in general, point directly at the Earth. This effect results in a spread of arrival times, because each cube that comprises the retroreflector is at a slightly different distance from the Earth, leading to the reduced ranging accuracy. Thus, a single, wide aperture corner-cube could have a clear advantage. In addition, after nearly four decades of successful operations the retro-reflectors arrays currently on the Moon started to show performance degradation; as a result, they yield still useful, but much weaker return signals. Thus, fresh and bright instruments on the lunar surface are needed to continue precision LLR measurements. We have developed a new retro-reflector design to enable advanced LLR operations. It is based on a single, hollow corner cube with a large aperture for which preliminary thermal, mechanical, and optical design and analysis have been performed. The new instrument will be able to reach an Earth-Moon range precision of 1-mm in a single pulse while being subjected to significant thermal variations present on the lunar surface, and will have low mass to allow robotic deployment. Here we report on our design results and instrument development effort.
The Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR) experiment has accumulated 50 years of range data of improving accuracy from ground stations to the laser retroreflector arrays (LRAs) on the lunar surface. The upcoming decade offers several opportunities to break new ground in data precision through the deployment of the next generation of single corner-cube lunar retroreflectors and active laser transponders. This is likely to expand the LLR station network. Lunar dynamical models and analysis tools have the potential to improve and fully exploit the long temporal baseline and precision allowed by millimetric LLR data. Some of the model limitations are outlined for future efforts. Differential observation techniques will help mitigate some of the primary limiting factors and reach unprecedented accuracy. Such observations and techniques may enable the detection of several subtle signatures required to understand the dynamics of the Earth-Moon system and the deep lunar interior. LLR model improvements would impact multi-disciplinary fields that include lunar and planetary science, Earth science, fundamental physics, celestial mechanics and ephemerides.
The Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR) experiment provides precise observations of the lunar orbit that contribute to a wide range of science investigations. In particular, time series of highly accurate measurements of the distance between the Earth and Moon provide unique information that determine whether, in accordance with the Equivalence Principle (EP), both of these celestial bodies are falling towards the Sun at the same rate, despite their different masses, compositions, and gravitational self-energies. Analyses of precise laser ranges to the Moon continue to provide increasingly stringent limits on any violation of the EP. Current LLR solutions give (-0.8 +/- 1.3) x 10^{-13} for any possible inequality in the ratios of the gravitational and inertial masses for the Earth and Moon, (m_G/m_I)_E - (m_G/m_I)_M. Such an accurate result allows other tests of gravitational theories. Focusing on the tests of the EP, we discuss the existing data and data analysis techniques. The robustness of the LLR solutions is demonstrated with several different approaches to solutions. Additional high accuracy ranges and improvements in the LLR data analysis model will further advance the research of relativistic gravity in the solar system, and will continue to provide highly accurate tests of the Equivalence Principle.
We study the impact of the limit on $|dot{G}|/G$ from Lunar Laser Ranging on nonlocal gravity, i.e. on models of the quantum effective action of gravity that include nonlocal terms relevant in the infrared, such as the RR and RT models proposed by our group, and the Deser-Woodard (DW) model. We elaborate on the analysis of Barreira et al. [1] and we confirm their findings that (under plausible assumptions such as the absence of strong backreaction from non-linear structures), the RR model is ruled out. We also show that the mechanism of perfect screening for free suggested for the DW model actually does not work and the DW model is also ruled out. In contrast, the RT model passes all phenomenological consistency tests and is still a viable candidate.
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