Newtons Law of Gravitation has been tested at small values of the acceleration, down to a=10^{-10} m/s^2, the approximate value of MONDs constant a_0. No deviations were found.
One of the primary reasons behind the difficulty in observing the Unruh effect is that for achievable acceleration scales the finite temperature effects are significant only for the low frequency modes of the field. Since the density of field modes f
alls for small frequencies in free space, the field modes which are relevant for the thermal effects would be less in number to make an observably significant effect. In this work, we investigate the response of a Unruh-DeWitt detector coupled to a massless scalar field which is confined in a long cylindrical cavity. The density of field modes inside such a cavity shows a {it resonance structure} i.e. it rises abruptly for some specific cavity configurations. We show that an accelerating detector inside the cavity exhibits a non-trivial excitation and de-excitation rates for {it small} accelerations around such resonance points. If the cavity parameters are adjusted to lie in a neighborhood of such resonance points, the (small) acceleration-induced emission rate can be made much larger than the already observable inertial emission rate. We comment on the possibilities of employing this detector-field-cavity system in the experimental realization of Unruh effect, and argue that the necessity of extremely high acceleration can be traded off in favor of precision in cavity manufacturing for realizing non-inertial field theoretic effects in laboratory settings.
Phase compensated optical fiber links enable high accuracy atomic clocks separated by thousands of kilometers to be compared with unprecedented statistical resolution. By searching for a daily variation of the frequency difference between four stront
ium optical lattice clocks in different locations throughout Europe connected by such links, we improve upon previous tests of time dilation predicted by special relativity. We obtain a constraint on the Robertson--Mansouri--Sexl parameter $|alpha|lesssim 1.1 times10^{-8}$ quantifying a violation of time dilation, thus improving by a factor of around two the best known constraint obtained with Ives--Stilwell type experiments, and by two orders of magnitude the best constraint obtained by comparing atomic clocks. This work is the first of a new generation of tests of fundamental physics using optical clocks and fiber links. As clocks improve, and as fiber links are routinely operated, we expect that the tests initiated in this paper will improve by orders of magnitude in the near future.
In this communication, the current tests of gravitation available at Solar System scales are recalled. These tests rely mainly on two frameworks: the PPN framework and the search for a fifth force. Some motivations are given to look for deviations fr
om General Relativity in other frameworks than the two extensively considered. A recent analysis of Cassini data in a MOND framework is presented. Furthermore, possibilities to constrain Standard Model Extension parameters using Solar System data are developed.
We report an experimental test of non-Newtonian gravitational forces at mi- crometer range. To experimentally subtract off the Casimir force and the electrostatic force background, differential force measurements were performed by sensing the lateral
force between a gold sphere and a density modulated source mass using a soft cantilever. The current sensitivity is limited by the patch electrostatic force, which is further improved by two dimensional (2D) force mapping. The preliminary result sets a model independent constraint on the Yukawa type force at this range.
We give an overview of literature related to Jurgen Ehlers pioneering 1981 paper on Frame theory--a theoretical framework for the unification of General Relativity and the equations of classical Newtonian gravitation. This unification encompasses the
convergence of one-parametric families of four-dimensional solutions of Einsteins equations of General Relativity to a solution of equations of a Newtonian theory if the inverse of a causality constant goes to zero. As such the corresponding light cones open up and become space-like hypersurfaces of constant absolute time on which Newtonian solutions are found as a limit of the Einsteinian ones. It is explained what it means to not consider the `standard-textbook Newtonian theory of gravitation as a complete theory unlike Einsteins theory of gravitation. In fact, Ehlers Frame theory brings to light a modern viewpoint in which the `standard equations of a self-gravitating Newtonian fluid are Maxwell-type equations. The consequences of Frame theory are presented for Newtonian cosmological dust matter expressed via the spatially projected electric part of the Weyl tensor, and for the formulation of characteristic quasi-Newtonian initial data on the light cone of a Bondi-Sachs metric.