Session D9 - Experimental Tests of Short Range Gravitation.
ORAL session, Saturday afternoon, May 01
Governor's Square 12, Adam's Mark Hotel
Recent theories of TeV physics have generated much interest in tests for deviations from Newtonian gravity at distances of less than 1~mm. Predictions of extra dimensions and other physics beyond the Standard Model include Yukawa-type modifications to the classical Newtonian gravitation potential at length scales and magnitudes that may be accessible in tabletop experiments. We have built a probe to measure gravity-like forces on the order of 10^-18~N at distances of less than 100~\mum.(J. Chiaverini, S. J. Smullin, A. A. Geraci, D. M. Weld, A. Kapitulnik, Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 151101 (2003).) The force sensor is a silicon cantilever to which is attached a gold test mass. The drive mass is a pattern of alternating gold and silicon bars, which is oscillated below the test mass at a subharmonic of the cantilever resonant frequency. This talk will describe the experiment and our results.