Dynamical measurements of deviations from Newton's $1/r^2$ law

TL;DR

This paper refines an experimental setup to detect tiny deviations from Newton's gravitational law at micrometer scales by measuring orbital precession, aiming to identify potential new physics beyond classical gravity.

Contribution

It optimizes a previously proposed experiment for maximum sensitivity to Yukawa-like deviations from Newtonian gravity at small distances.

Findings

Can test Yukawa corrections with strength as low as 0.01

Sensitivity achieved at distance scales around 10 micrometers

Background sources quantified and minimized

Abstract

In a previous work (arXiv:1609.05654v2), an experimental setup aiming at the measurement of deviations from the Newtonian $1/r^2$ distance dependence of gravitational interactions was proposed. The theoretical idea behind this setup was to study the trajectories of a "Satellite" with a mass $m_{\rm S} \sim {\cal O}(10^{-9})$ $\mathrm{g}$ around a "Planet" with mass $m_{\rm P} \in [10^{-7},10^{-5} ]$ $\mathrm{g}$, looking for precession of the orbit. The observation of such feature induced by gravitational interactions would be an unambiguous indication of a gravitational potential with terms different from $1/r$ and, thus, a powerful tool to detect deviations from Newton's $1/r^2$ law. In this paper we optimize the proposed setup in order to achieve maximal sensitivity to look for {\em Beyond-Newtonian} corrections. We study in detail possible background sources that could induce precession and quantify their impact on the achievable sensitivity. We conclude that a dynamical measurement of deviations from newtonianity can test Yukawa-like corrections to the $1/r$ potential with strength as low as $\alpha \sim 10^{-2}$ for distances as small as $\lambda \sim 10 \, \mu\mathrm{m}$.