Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Scientific paper
2002-08-02
NewJ.Phys.4:92,2002
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
9 pages. Latex file. No figures. Additional comments about the proposed experiment
Scientific paper
10.1088/1367-2630/4/1/392
An E\"otv\"os experiment to test the weak equivalence principle (WEP) for zero-point vacuum energy is proposed using a satellite. Following the suggestion of Ross for a terrestrial experiment of this type, the acceleration of a spherical test mass of aluminum would be compared with that of a similar test mass made from another material. The estimated ratio of the zero-point vacuum energy density inside the aluminum sphere to the rest mass energy density is ~ 1.6 X 10^{-14}, which would allow a 1% resolution of a potential WEP violation observed in a satellite mission test that had a baseline sensitivity to WEP violations of ~ 10^{-16}. An observed violation of the WEP for vacuum energy density would constitute a significant clue as to the origin of the cosmological constant and the source of dark energy, and test a recently proposed resolution of the cosmological constant problem, based on a model of nonlocal quantum gravity and quantum field theory.
Gillies George T.
Moffat John W.
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