Session J9 - Experimental Gravity and Gravitational Radiation.
FOCUS session, Sunday afternoon, April 29
Room 2, Renaissance Hotel
Motivated by higher-dimensional theories that predict new effects, we tested the gravitational inverse-square law at separations ranging down to 218 micrometers using a 10-fold symmetric torsion pendulum and a rotating 10-fold symmetric attractor. We improved previous short-range constraints by up to a factor of 1000 and find no deviations from Newtonian physics. I will also discuss a second-generation experiment designed to investigate the gravitational interaction at even shorter distances. The new apparatus has 26-fold rotational symmetry and will attain pendulum to attractor separations of 100 micrometers.