Related papers: Equivalence of Active and Passive Gravitational Ma…
Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR) measurements are crucial for advanced exploration of the laws of fundamental gravitational physics and geophysics. Current LLR technology allows us to measure distances to the Moon with a precision approaching 1…
Three conceptually different masses appear in equations of motion for objects under gravity, namely, the inertial mass, $m_{\cal I}$, the passive gravitational mass, $m_{\cal P}$, and the active gravitational mass, $m_{\cal A}$. It is…
The Sun's relativistic gravitational gradient accelerations of Earth and Moon, dependent on the motions of the latter bodies, act upon the system's internal angular momentum. This spin-orbit force (which plays a part in determining the…
The Earth-Moon-Sun system has traditionally provided the best laboratory for testing the strong equivalence principle. For a decade, the Apache Point Observatory Lunar Laser-ranging Operation (APOLLO) has been producing the world's best…
Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR) measures the distance between observatories on Earth and retro-reflectors on Moon since 1970. In this paper, we study the effect of non-tidal station loading (NTSL) in the analysis of LLR data. We add the non-tidal…
Current and future optical technologies will aid exploration of the Moon and Mars while advancing fundamental physics research in the solar system. Technologies and possible improvements in the laser-enabled tests of various physical…
In this note we mainly explore the possibility of measuring the action of the intrinsic gravitomagnetic field of the rotating Earth on the orbital motion of the Moon with the Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR) technique. Expected improvements in it…
The speed of laser light pulses launched from Earth and returned by a retro-reflector on the Moon was calculated from precision round-trip time-of-flight measurements and modeled distances. The measured speed of light (c) in the moving…
More precise lunar and Martian ranging will enable unprecedented tests of Einstein's theory of General Relativity and well as lunar and planetary science. NASA is currently planning several missions to return to the Moon, and it is natural…
Existing capabilities in laser ranging, optical interferometry and metrology, in combination with precision frequency standards, atom-based quantum sensors, and drag-free technologies, are critical for the space-based tests of fundamental…
Lunar laser ranging has provided many of the best tests of gravitation since the first Apollo astronauts landed on the Moon. The march to higher precision continues to this day, now entering the millimeter regime, and promising continued…
Analyses of laser ranges to the Moon provide increasingly stringent limits on any violation of the Equivalence Principle (EP); they also enable several very accurate tests of relativistic gravity. We report the results of our recent…
The standard-model extension (SME) is an effective field theory framework aiming at parametrizing any violation to the Lorentz symmetry (LS) in all sectors of physics. In this Letter, we report the first direct experimental measurement of…
Measuring the effect of gravity on antimatter is a longstanding problem in physics that has significant implications for our understanding of the fundamental nature of the universe. Here, we present a technique to measure the gravitational…
Gravitomagnetism--a motional coupling of matter analogous to the Lorentz force in electromagnetism--has observable consequences for any scenario involving differing mass currents. Examples include gyroscopes located near a rotating massive…
A decreasing gravitational constant, G, coupled with angular momentum conservation is expected to increrase a planetary semimajor axis, a, as \dot a/a=-\dot G/G. Analysis of lunar laser ranging data strongly limits such temporal variations…
If the fundamental constants of nature have a cosmic spatial variation, there will in general be extra forces with a preferred direction in space which violate the equivalence principle. We show that the millimeter-precision Apache Point…
The Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR) experiment has accumulated 50 years of range data of improving accuracy from ground stations to the laser retroreflector arrays (LRAs) on the lunar surface. The upcoming decade offers several opportunities to…
The environment on the Moon has numerous features that make it interesting not only for the study of astrophysical phenomena, but also elementary particle physics. In fact, vacuum conditions, low gravity, and exposure to a relatively…
In the last decade, a variety of high-precision experiments have searched for miniscule violations of Lorentz symmetry. These searches are largely motivated by the possibility of uncovering experimental signatures from a fundamental unified…