# Optomechanical vector sensing of new forces at 6 micron separation

## TL;DR

This paper improves the search for new gravity-like forces at very small scales using optically levitated microspheres, achieving much higher sensitivity than before.

## Contribution

The study introduces multi-component force vector sensing and achieves a 100-fold sensitivity improvement in detecting new forces at micrometer separations.

## Key findings

- New force strength is constrained to less than 10^7 at a Yukawa range of 5 micrometers.
- Sensitivity improved by a factor of ~100 compared to prior measurements.
- Results support efforts to study quantum gravity using micrometer-scale objects.

## Abstract

The search for new gravity-like interactions at the sub-millimeter scale is a compelling area of research, with important implications for the understanding of classical gravity and its connections with quantum physics. We report improved constraints on Yukawa-type interactions in the \documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document}$$10\,\mathrm {\mu m}$$\end{document} regime using optically levitated dielectric microspheres as test masses. The search is performed, for the first time, sensing multiple spatial components of the force vector, and with sensitivity improved by a factor of \documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document}$$\sim 100$$\end{document} with respect to previous measurements using the same technique. The resulting upper limit on the strength of a hypothetical new force is \documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document}$$10^7$$\end{document} at a Yukawa range \documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document}$$\lambda \simeq 5\;\mu$$\end{document}m and close to \documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document}$$10^6$$\end{document} for \documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document}$$\lambda \gtrsim 10\;\mu$$\end{document}m. This result also advances our efforts to measure gravitational effects using micrometer-size objects, with important implications for embryonic ideas to investigate the quantum nature of gravity.