Combined Search for a Lorentz-Violating Force in Short-Range Gravity Varying as the Inverse Sixth Power of Distance

Cheng-Gang Shao, Ya-Fen Chen, Yu-Jie Tan, Shan-Qing Yang, Jun Luo, Michael Edmund Tobar, J. C. Long, E. Weisman, and V. Alan Kostelecký

Precision measurements of the inverse-square law via experiments on short-range gravity provide sensitive tests of Lorentz symmetry. A combined analysis of data from experiments at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology and Indiana University sets simultaneous limits on all 22 coefficients for Lorentz violation correcting the Newton force law as the inverse sixth power of distance. Results are consistent with no effect at the level of 10−12  m4.

Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 011102 – Published 10 January 2019

Received 13 August 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.011102

https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.011102

AUTHORS & AFFILIATIONS

Cheng-Gang Shao, Ya-Fen Chen, Yu-Jie Tan, Shan-Qing Yang*, and Jun Luo†

MOE Key Laboratory of Fundamental Physical Quantities Measurement, Hubei Key Laboratory of Gravitation and Quantum Physics, PGMF and School of Physics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, People’s Republic of China

Michael Edmund Tobar‡

Department of Physics, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia 6009, Australia

J. C. Long§, E. Weisman∥, and V. Alan Kostelecký¶

Physics Department, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405, USA

*ysq2011@hust.edu.cn

†junluo@sysu.edu.cn

‡michael.tobar@uwa.edu.au

§jcl@indiana.edu

∥Present address: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA.

¶kostelec@indiana.edu

© 2019 American Physical Society