Geophysical test of the universality of free-fall

TL;DR

This paper proposes testing the universality of free-fall by measuring Earth's surface gravity variations caused by potential violations, using superconducting gravimeters to achieve high sensitivity.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method to test free-fall universality through Earth's gravity measurements, with a detailed model and analysis of experimental sensitivity.

Findings

Potential to test universality to 10^{-9} level

Superconducting gravimeters can detect differential accelerations

Global measurement strategies can improve sensitivity

Abstract

We point out that the universality of free-fall can be tested by observing surface-gravity changes of the Earth. The Earth's inner core is weakly coupled to the rest part of the Earth by mainly gravitational forces. If there were a violation of the universality of free-fall, because of their different chemical compositions and/or of different mass fractions of binding energies, the inner core and the rest part of the Earth would fall at different rates towards the Sun and other sources of gravitational fields. The differential acceleration could be observed as surface-gravity effects. By assuming a simple Earth model, we discuss the expected surface-gravity effects of violations of the universality and experiments to search for such effects by using superconducting gravimeters. It is shown that the universality can be tested to a level of 10$^{-9}$ using currently operating superconducting gravimeters. Some improvements can be expected from combinations of global measurements and applications of advanced data analyses.