English

Result of the MICROSCOPE Weak Equivalence Principle test

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2023-04-14 v1 Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics High Energy Physics - Theory

Abstract

The space mission MICROSCOPE dedicated to the test of the Equivalence Principle (EP) operated from April 25, 2016 until the deactivation of the satellite on October 16, 2018. In this analysis we compare the free-fall accelerations (aAa_{\rm A} and aBa_{\rm B}) of two test masses in terms of the E\"otv\"os parameter η(A,B)=2aAaBaA+aB\eta({\rm{A, B}}) = 2 \frac{a_{\rm A}- a_{\rm B}}{a_{\rm A}+ a_{\rm B}}. No EP violation has been detected for two test masses, made from platinum and titanium alloys, in a sequence of 19 segments lasting from 13 to 198 hours down to the limit of the statistical error which is smaller than 101410^{-14} for η(Ti,Pt) \eta({\rm{Ti, Pt}}). Accumulating data from all segments leads to η(Ti,Pt)=[1.5±2.3(stat)±1.5(syst)]×1015\eta({\rm{Ti, Pt}}) =[-1.5\pm{}2.3{\rm (stat)}\pm{}1.5{\rm (syst)}] \times{}10^{-15} showing no EP violation at the level of 2.7×10152.7\times{}10^{-15} if we combine stochastic and systematic errors quadratically. This represents an improvement of almost two orders of magnitude with respect to the previous best such test performed by the E\"ot-Wash group. The reliability of this limit has been verified by comparing the free falls of two test masses of the same composition (platinum) leading to a null E\"otv\"os parameter with a statistical uncertainty of 1.1×10151.1\times{}10^{-15}.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2209.15488,
  title  = {Result of the MICROSCOPE Weak Equivalence Principle test},
  author = {Pierre Touboul and Gilles Métris and Manuel Rodrigues and Joel Bergé and Alain Robert and Quentin Baghi and Yves André and Judicaël Bedouet and Damien Boulanger and Stefanie Bremer and Patrice Carle and Ratana Chhun and Bruno Christophe and Valerio Cipolla and Thibault Damour and Pascale Danto and Louis Demange and Hansjoerg Dittus and Océane Dhuicque and Pierre Fayet and Bernard Foulon and Pierre-Yves Guidotti and Daniel Hagedorn and Emilie Hardy and Phuong-Anh Huynh and Patrick Kayser and Stéphanie Lala and Claus Lämmerzahl and Vincent Lebat and Françoise Liorzou and Meike List and Frank Löffler and Isabelle Panet and Martin Pernot-Borràs and Laurent Perraud and Sandrine Pires and Benjamin Pouilloux and Pascal Prieur and Alexandre Rebray and Serge Reynaud and Benny Rievers and Hanns Selig and Laura Serron and Timothy Sumner and Nicolas Tanguy and Patrizia Torresi and Pieter Visser},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2209.15488},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

Class. Quantum Grav. 39 204009

R2 v1 2026-06-28T02:27:42.718Z