Stephan Schlamminger

Title

Laboratory Tests of Gravitation

Abstract

Gravitation is the weakest of the four fundamental interactions known to man. Despite the fact that it has been studied many centuries longer than other interactions, our experimental knowledge is incomplete. For example the precise strength of gravity, given by the Newtonian constant of gravitation is one of the least known fundamental constants of physics. In my talk I will present the current status of research of laboratory test of gravitation. In the first part of the talk I will discuss measurements testing the weak equivalence principle. The weak equivalence principle states that in a uniform gravitational field all bodies will drop with the same acceleration regardless of the mass and composition of the bodies. In the second half of the talk I will discuss tests of the inverse square law of the gravitation force. The inverse square law is a natural consequence of the fact that we live in a world with three spatial dimensions. The existence of additional compact dimensions would be measureable as a deviation of the gravitational force between two test bodies from the inverse square law at separations comparable to the size of the largest additional dimension. I will present current experiments searching for a violation of the inverse square law at gravitational strength for separations smaller than 100 micrometer.