Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to Revised Edition
- Preface to First Edition
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The Einstein Equivalence Principle and the Foundations of Gravitation Theory
- 3 Gravitation as a Geometric Phenomenon
- 4 The Parametrized Post-Newtonian Formalism
- 5 Post-Newtonian Limits of Alternative Metric Theories of Gravity
- 6 Equations of Motion in the PPN Formalism
- 7 The Classical Tests
- 8 Tests of the Strong Equivalence Principle
- 9 Other Tests of Post-Newtonian Gravity
- 10 Gravitational Radiation as a Tool for Testing Relativistic Gravity
- 11 Structure and Motion of Compact Objects in Alternative Theories of Gravity
- 12 The Binary Pulsar
- 13 Cosmological Tests
- 14 An Update
- References
- References to Chapter 14
- Index
14 - An Update
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 April 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to Revised Edition
- Preface to First Edition
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The Einstein Equivalence Principle and the Foundations of Gravitation Theory
- 3 Gravitation as a Geometric Phenomenon
- 4 The Parametrized Post-Newtonian Formalism
- 5 Post-Newtonian Limits of Alternative Metric Theories of Gravity
- 6 Equations of Motion in the PPN Formalism
- 7 The Classical Tests
- 8 Tests of the Strong Equivalence Principle
- 9 Other Tests of Post-Newtonian Gravity
- 10 Gravitational Radiation as a Tool for Testing Relativistic Gravity
- 11 Structure and Motion of Compact Objects in Alternative Theories of Gravity
- 12 The Binary Pulsar
- 13 Cosmological Tests
- 14 An Update
- References
- References to Chapter 14
- Index
Summary
In this chapter, we present a brief update of the past decade of testing relativity. Earlier updates to which the reader might refer include “The Confrontation between General Relativity and Experiment: An Update” (Will, 1984), “Experimental Gravitation from Newton's Principia to Einstein's General Relativity” (Will, 1987), “General Relativity at 75: How Right Was Einstein?” (Will, 1990a), and “The Confrontation Between General Relativity and Experiment: a 1992 Update” (Will, 1992a). For a popular review of testing general relativity, see “Was Einstein Right?” (Will, 1986).
The Einstein Equivalence Principle
(a) Tests of EEP
Several recent experiments that constitute tests of the Weak Equivalence Principle (WEP) were carried out primarily to search for a “fifth-force” (Section 14.5). In the “free-fall Galileo experiment” performed at the University of Colorado (Niebauer, McHugh and Faller, 1987), the relative free-fall acceleration of two bodies made of uranium and copper was measured using a laser interferometric technique. The “Eöt–Wash” experiment (Heckel et al., 1989; Adelberger, Stubbs et al., 1990) carried out at the University of Washington used a sophisticated torsion balance tray to compare the accelerations of beryllium and copper. The resulting upper limits on η[Equation (2.3)] from these and earlier tests of WEP are summarized in Figure 14.1
Dramatically improved “ mass isotropy” tests of Local Lorentz Invariance (LLI) (Section 2.4(b)) have been carried out recently using lasercooled trapped atom techniques (Prestage et al., 1985; Lamoreaux et al., 1986; Chupp et al., 1989).
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- Information
- Theory and Experiment in Gravitational Physics , pp. 320 - 352Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1993