Prospects for terrestrial equivalence principle tests with a cryogenic torsion pendulum
نویسندگان
چکیده
A torsion pendulum may be used to measure effective differential accelerations of test masses in the field of sources on distance scales below those accessible in a space experiment such as STEP. Operation of a torsion pendulum at low temperature (2 K) offers many benefits, notably: low thermal noise, high fibre stability, highly effective superconducting magnetic shielding and excellent temperature control. With such an instrument it should be possible to detect differential accelerations as small as 10−14 cm s−2, or fractional differential accelerations in the field of the Earth as small as η = 10−14. This paper discusses the sources of noise and systematic error that limit a cryogenic torsion pendulum in such measurements. PACS numbers: 0480, 0480C, 0710P, 0720M
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