Search for Lorentz Violation using Short-Range Tests of Gravity

TL;DR

This paper reports on short-range gravity experiments that set new limits on Lorentz violation in the pure gravity sector, constraining SME coefficients to the order of 10^{-9} m^2.

Contribution

It provides the first experimental constraints on 14 SME coefficients for Lorentz violation in the pure gravity sector using short-range tests.

Findings

Constraints on SME coefficients are of order 10^{-9} m^2.

Two independent experiments at Indiana University and Huazhong University of Science and Technology.

No evidence of Lorentz violation was observed.

Abstract

Experimental tests of the newtonian inverse square law at short range, one at Indiana University and the other at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology, have been used to set limits on Lorentz violation in the pure gravity sector of the nonminimal Standard-Model Extension. In the nonrelativistic limit, the constraints derived for the 14 independent SME coefficients for Lorentz violation acting simultaneously are of order $10^{-9}$ m$^{2}$.