Progress Towards a Muonium Gravity Experiment
Abstract
The gravitational acceleration of antimatter, , has yet to be directly measured but could change our understanding of gravity, the Universe, and the possibility of a fifth force. Three avenues are apparent for such a measurement: antihydrogen, positronium, and muonium, the last requiring a precision atom interferometer and benefiting from a novel muonium beam under development. The interferometer and its few-picometer alignment and calibration systems appear to be feasible. With 100 nm grating pitch, measurements of to 10%, 1%, or better can be envisioned. This could constitute the first gravitational measurement of leptonic matter, of second-generation matter and, possibly, the first measurement of the gravitational acceleration of antimatter.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1607.07434,
title = {Progress Towards a Muonium Gravity Experiment},
author = {Daniel M. Kaplan and Klaus Kirch and Derrick C. Mancini and James D. Phillips and Thomas J. Phillips and Robert D. Reasenberg and Thomas J. Roberts and Jeff Terry},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1607.07434},
year = {2016}
}
Comments
Presented at the Seventh Meeting on CPT and Lorentz Symmetry, Bloomington, Indiana, June 20-24, 2016