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TEPEE/GReAT (General Relativity Accuracy Test in an Einstein Elevator): Advances in the detector development

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 September 2008

V. Iafolla
Affiliation:
Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario (IFSI/INAF), via del Fosso del Cavaliere, 00133 Roma, Italia
E. Fiorenza
Affiliation:
Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario (IFSI/INAF), via del Fosso del Cavaliere, 00133 Roma, Italia
C. Lefevre
Affiliation:
Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario (IFSI/INAF), via del Fosso del Cavaliere, 00133 Roma, Italia
D.M. Lucchesi
Affiliation:
Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario (IFSI/INAF), via del Fosso del Cavaliere, 00133 Roma, Italia
A. Morbidini
Affiliation:
Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario (IFSI/INAF), via del Fosso del Cavaliere, 00133 Roma, Italia
S. Nozzoli
Affiliation:
Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario (IFSI/INAF), via del Fosso del Cavaliere, 00133 Roma, Italia
R. Peron
Affiliation:
Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario (IFSI/INAF), via del Fosso del Cavaliere, 00133 Roma, Italia
M. Persichini
Affiliation:
Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario (IFSI/INAF), via del Fosso del Cavaliere, 00133 Roma, Italia
A. Reale
Affiliation:
Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario (IFSI/INAF), via del Fosso del Cavaliere, 00133 Roma, Italia
F. Santoli
Affiliation:
Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario (IFSI/INAF), via del Fosso del Cavaliere, 00133 Roma, Italia
E.C. Lorenzini
Affiliation:
Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), Cambridge, MA, USA University of Padova, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Padua, Italy
I.I. Shapiro
Affiliation:
Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), Cambridge, MA, USA
J. Ashenberg
Affiliation:
Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), Cambridge, MA, USA
C. Bombardelli
Affiliation:
Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), Cambridge, MA, USA
S. Glashow
Affiliation:
Boston University, Boston, MA, USA
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Abstract

This paper reports the development of an experiment (TEPEE/GReAT) to test the Equivalence Principle (EP) at a level of accuracy equal to 5 × 10-15, by means of a differential accelerometer free falling in a cryogenic vacuum capsule released from a stratospheric balloon. Such an accuracy requires resolving a very small signal out of the instrument's intrinsic noise and the noise associated with the instrument's motion. Imperfections in the construction of the detector introduce gravity gradient noise that it is possible to separate from the violation signal spinning the detector around an horizontal axis in order to have the EP violation signal and the gravity gradients one modulated at two different frequencies. Experimental results on prototype instruments showing high sensitivity and common mode rejection factor are shown.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© EAS, EDP Sciences, 2008

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References

Iafolla, V., Nozzoli, S., Lorenzini, E.C., & Milyukov, V., 1998, Rev. Sci. Instruments, 69, 4146 CrossRef
Iafolla, V., Nozzoli, S., Lorenzini, E.C., Shapiro, I.I., & Milyukov, V., 2000, Class. Quant. Gravity, 17, 2327 CrossRef
Lorenzini, E., Shapiro, I., Iafolla, V., Nozzoli, S., Milyukov, V., & Zielinski, J., 2000 in 33rd COSPAR Scientific Assembly, Warsaw, Poland
Will, C.M., 2006, Living Rev. Relativity, 9, 3 CrossRefPubMed