Testing General Relativity With Laser Accelerated Electron Beams

TL;DR

This paper proposes a method to test the weak equivalence principle of general relativity using laser-accelerated electron beams reaching accelerations of 10^21 g, by solving Einstein's equations and particle geodesics.

Contribution

It introduces a novel experimental approach leveraging ultra-high acceleration electron beams to test fundamental aspects of general relativity.

Findings

Demonstrates feasibility of testing the weak equivalence principle with laser-accelerated electrons.

Provides a theoretical framework involving Einstein equations and geodesic calculations.

Suggests potential for new experimental tests of gravity at high accelerations.

Abstract

Electron accelerations of the order of $10^{21} g$ obtained by laser fields open up the possibility of experimentally testing one of the cornerstones of general relativity, the weak equivalence principle, which states that the local effects of a gravitational field are indistinguishable from those sensed by a properly accelerated observer in flat space-time. We illustrate how this can be done by solving the Einstein equations in vacuum and integrating the geodesic equations of motion for a uniformly accelerated particle.