Exploring the Foundations of the Physical Universe with Space Tests of the Equivalence Principle

Peter Wolf (1) , Luc Blanchet (2) , Kai Bongs , Philippe Bouyer (3) , Baptiste Battelier (3) , Andrea Bertoldi (3) , Claus Braxmaier (4, 5) , Lisa Wörner (4, 5) , Davide Calonico (6) , Pierre Fayet (7) , Aurelien Hees (1) , Christophe Le Poncin-Lafitte (1) , Philip Tuckey (1) , Philippe Jetzer (8) , Claus Lämmerzahl (5) , Steve Lecomte (9) , Gilles Métris (10) , Ernst Rasel (11) , Naceur Gaaloul (11) , S. Loriani (11) , C. Schubert (11) , Serge Reynaud (12) , Christine Guerlin (12) , Christophe Salomon (12) , Manuel Rodrigues (13) , Joël Bergé (13) , Markus Rothacher (14) , Wolfgang P. Schleich (15) , Albert Roura (15) , Stephan Schiller (16) , Carlos Sopuerta (17, 18) , M. Nofrarias (17, 18) , Fiodor Sorrentino (19) , Tim J. Sumner (20) , Maria Tino Guglielmo (21, 22) , Wolf von Klitzing (23) , Martin Zelan (24)

1 LNE - SYRTE - Laboratoire national de métrologie et d'essais - Systèmes de Référence Temps-Espace
2 IAP - Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris
3 LP2N - Laboratoire Photonique, Numérique et Nanosciences
4 DLR - Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt
5 ZARM - Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity
6 INRiM - Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica
7 LPTENS - Laboratoire de Physique Théorique de l'ENS [École Normale Supérieure]
8 Universitaet Zuerich
9 CSEM - Centre Suisse d'Electronique et Microtechnique SA
10 OCA - Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur
11 QUEST - Centre for Quantum Engineering and Space-time Research
12 LKB (Jussieu) - Laboratoire Kastler Brossel
13 DPHY, ONERA, Université Paris Saclay (COmUE) [Châtillon]
14 IGP - Institute of Geodesy and Photogrammetry [Zürich]
15 Universität Ulm - Ulm University [Ulm, Allemagne]
16 Institut fur Experimentalphysik
17 ICE-CSIC - Institute of Space Sciences [Barcelona]
18 IEEC-CSIC - Institute for Space Studies of Catalonia [Barcelona]
19 INFN, Sezione di Genova - Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Genova
20 Imperial College London
21 LENS - European Laboratory for Non-Linear Spectroscopy
22 INFN, Sezione di Firenze - Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Firenze
23 FORTH-IESL - Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser
24 RISE Research Institutes of Sweden

We present the scientific motivation for future space tests of the equivalence principle, and in particular the universality of free fall, at the 10^-17 level or better. Two possible mission scenarios, one based on quantum technologies, the other on electrostatic accelerometers, that could reach that goal are briefly discussed.

Mots clés: GRAVITATION; PRINCIPE EQUIVALENCE; SATELLITE

Domaines: Sciences de l'ingénieur [physics]; Physique [physics]

Peter Wolf, Luc Blanchet, Kai Bongs, Philippe Bouyer, Baptiste Battelier, et al.. Exploring the Foundations of the Physical Universe with Space Tests of the Equivalence Principle. 2019. ⟨hal-02418020v1⟩