Precision measurement of the Newtonian gravitational constant using cold atoms
By G. Rosi, F. Sorrentino, L. Cacciapuoti, M. Prevedelli, G. Tino. Nature, 2014
674 citations recorded by the source corpus.
About 300 experiments have tried to determine the value of the Newtonian gravitational constant, G, so far, but large discrepancies in the results have made it impossible to know its value precisely. The weakness of the gravitational interaction and the impossibility of shielding the effects of gravity make it very difficult to measure G while keeping systematic effects under control. Most previous experiments performed were based on the torsion pendulum or torsion balance scheme as in the experiment by Cavendish in 1798, and in all cases macroscopic masses were used. Here we report the precise determination of G using laser-cooled atoms and quantum interferometry. We obtain the value G = 6.67191(99) × 10−11 m3 kg−1 s−2 with a relative uncertainty of 150 parts per million (the combined standard uncertainty is given in parentheses). Our value differs by 1.5 combined standard deviations from the current recommended value of the Committee on Data for Science and Technology. A conceptually different experiment such as ours helps to identify the systematic errors that have proved elusive in previous experiments, thus improving the confidence in the value of G. There is no definitive relationship between G and the other fundamental constants, and there is no theoretical prediction for its value, against which to test experimental results. Improving the precision with which we know G has not only a pure metrological interest, but is also important because of the key role that G has in theories of gravitation, cosmology, particle physics and astrophysics and in geophysical models.
Subfields: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics, Statistics and Probability
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/74228ab843b2b628652eda2ffc480f279500bc17
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Citations in the corpus
- Search for New Physics with Atoms and Molecules (2017, background): “Rosi et al. (2014) reported an atominterferometric determination of G was with a relative standard uncertainty of 0.015 %.”
- Quantum test of the Universality of Free Fall using rubidium and potassium (2020, methodology): “These new atomic sensors allow accessing novel methods to understand fundamental physics [11–15].”
- Matter-wave Atomic Gradiometer Interferometric Sensor (MAGIS-100) (2021, neutral): “constant [16, 48, 49], the fine structure constant [31, 32], and the equivalence principle (EP) [19–30].”