Experimental Evidences Supporting the Extension of the Equivalence Principle to Electromagnetic Fields

TL;DR

This paper extends the equivalence principle to include electromagnetic fields, supported by experimental evidence, suggesting a unified view of gravity and electromagnetism within curved spacetime.

Contribution

It introduces a generalized, particle-family-dependent form of the equivalence principle that applies to electric and magnetic fields, supported by experimental data.

Findings

Electrons do not fall in Earth's gravitational field, as shown by Witteborn-Fairbank experiment.

Electric charges do not radiate when in free fall or accelerated in homogeneous fields.

The London moment in superconductors supports the extended equivalence principle.

Abstract

The principle of equivalence postulating that an acceleration is indistinguishable from gravity by any experiment, is valid within families of particles having the same passive gravitational to inertial mass ratio $m_p/m_i$. Presently experimental observations indicate that we live in a universe with one single family for which $m_p/m_i=1$, but if we consider the imaginary case of a universe with several particle families having different $m_p/m_i$, the principle of equivalence would still apply to each one of them. On the basis of this generalized formulation of the equivalence principle, which becomes relative to sets of particles, and that we designate as the \textit{single-particle equivalence principle}, one demonstrates that inertial frames can also be implemented for sets of electrically charged particles, with the same charge-to-mass ratio $q/m_i$, accelerating in homogeneous electric and / or magnetic fields (by analogy with the case of particles in free fall in a homogeneous gravitational field). Experimental evidences in support of the proposed extension of the principle of equivalence to electric fields are presented. These consist in the Witteborn-Fairbank experiment which revealed that electrons do not fall in the Earth gravitational field, and the well know fact that electric charges do not radiate either when in free fall in a homogeneous gravitational field, or when being accelerated by a homogeneous electric field. The London moment in rotating superconductors is also supporting the proposed extension of the equivalence principle. Prospects for the future exploration of the consequences of the proposed theoretical scheme to unify electromagnetism with gravitation in the paradigm of curved space-time, are also briefly suggested.