Space test of the Equivalence Principle: first results of the MICROSCOPE mission - Archive ouverte HAL Accéder directement au contenu
Article Dans Une Revue Classical and Quantum Gravity Année : 2019

Space test of the Equivalence Principle: first results of the MICROSCOPE mission

Gilles Métris
Serge Reynaud
Alain Robert
  • Fonction : Auteur
  • PersonId : 756759
  • IdRef : 160407761
Laura Serron
  • Fonction : Auteur

Résumé

The Weak Equivalence Principle (WEP), stating that two bodies of different compositions and/or mass fall at the same rate in a gravitational field (universality of free fall), is at the very foundation of General Relativity. The MICROSCOPE mission aims to test its validity to a precision of $10^{-15}$, two orders of magnitude better than current on-ground tests, by using two masses of different compositions (titanium and platinum alloys) on a quasi-circular trajectory around the Earth. This is realised by measuring the accelerations inferred from the forces required to maintain the two masses exactly in the same orbit. Any significant difference between the measured accelerations, occurring at a defined frequency, would correspond to the detection of a violation of the WEP, or to the discovery of a tiny new type of force added to gravity. MICROSCOPE's first results show no hint for such a difference, expressed in terms of E\"otv\"os parameter $\delta(Ti,Pt)=[-1\pm{}9{\rm (stat)}\pm{}9{\rm (syst)}] \times{}10^{-15}$ (both 1$\sigma$ uncertainties) for a titanium and platinum pair of materials. This result was obtained on a session with 120 orbital revolutions representing 7\% of the current available data acquired during the whole mission. The quadratic combination of 1$\sigma$ uncertainties leads to a current limit on $\delta$ of about $1.3\times{}10^{-14}$.
Fichier principal
Vignette du fichier
ToubEtAl.pdf (4.09 Mo) Télécharger le fichier
Origine : Fichiers produits par l'(les) auteur(s)

Dates et versions

hal-02299493 , version 1 (15-12-2023)

Identifiants

Citer

Pierre Touboul, Gilles Métris, Manuel Rodrigues, Yves André, Quentin Baghi, et al.. Space test of the Equivalence Principle: first results of the MICROSCOPE mission. Classical and Quantum Gravity, 2019, 36, pp.225006. ⟨10.1088/1361-6382/ab4707⟩. ⟨hal-02299493⟩
563 Consultations
11 Téléchargements

Altmetric

Partager

Gmail Facebook X LinkedIn More