Session V12 - Gravitation at Short Range.
INVITED session, Tuesday morning, May 02
101B, LBCC
Precision laboratory and astrophysical tests of gravity have covered inter-mass separations ranging from about a light-year down to 1 cm, and neither unexpected deviations from Newton's law nor new forces of gravitational strength have been found. However, no experiment to date has even detected gravity below 3 mm, and at 100 \mum existing limits still allow for new forces almost one million times stronger than gravity. Recently, there has been an explosion of interest in gravitational-strength phenomena below 1 cm, and it now appears that there are opportunities for new experiments to confront theory. We will review existing limits on new long range forces between 1 cm and 1 \mum, and summarize theoretical predictions of possible new phenomena in this region. We will also describe experiments now underway in our laboratory aimed at excluding new gravitational strength forces down to about 50 \mum. Some results from a preliminary version of the experiment will be presented.