MICROSCOPE Spacecraft’s Most Precise Test of Key Component of the Theory of General Relativity

MICROSCOPE Mission Presents Most Precise Test of General Relativity’s Weak Equivalence Principle

In new research, a team of scientists demonstrates the most precise test ever of the Weak Equivalence Principle, a key component of the theory of general relativity. A pair of new studies on the research will be published today (September 14) in Physical Review Letters and a special issue of Classical and Quantum Gravity. The report describes the final results from the MICROSCOPE mission, which tested the principle by measuring accelerations of free-falling objects in a satellite orbiting Earth. The team found that the accelerations of pairs of objects differed by no more than about one part in 10¹⁵ ruling out any violations of the Weak Equivalence Principle or deviations from the current understanding of general relativity at that level.

“We have new and much better constraints for any future theory, because these theories must not violate the equivalence principle at this level,” says Gilles Métris. He is a scientist at Côte d’Azur Observatory and member of the MICROSCOPE team.

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Published by Albert Einstein in 1915, the theory of general relativity describes how gravity works and relates to time and space. However, it does not account for the observations of quantum phenomena. Therefore, scientists look for deviations from the theory at increasing levels of precision and in various situations. Such violations would indicate new interactions or forces that could unite relativity with quantum physics. Testing the Weak Equivalence Principle (WEP) is one way to search for potential expansions to general relativity.

Objects in a gravitational field fall in the same way when no other forces are acting on them, even if they have different masses or compositions, according to the WEP. To test the principle, the MICROSCOPE team designed their experiment to measure the Eötvös ratio — which relates the accelerations of two free-falling objects — to an extremely high precision. If the acceleration of one object differs from the other’s by more than about one part in 10¹⁵, the experiment would measure it and detect this violation of the WEP.

The MICROSCOPE mission tested the Weak Equivalence Principle by measuring accelerations of free-falling objects in a satellite orbiting Earth. Researchers found that the accelerations of pairs of objects differed by no more than about one part in 10^15, ruling out any violations of the Weak Equivalence Principle or deviations from the current understanding of general relativity at that level. The final results will be published in Physical Review Letters and a special issue of Classical Quantum Gravity on September 14. Credit: (c) CNES 2015

To measure the Eötvös ratio, the researchers monitored the accelerations of platinum and titanium alloyA mixture of two metallic elements typically used to give greater strength or higher resistance to corrosion.” data-gt-translate-attributes=”[{“attribute”:”data-cmtooltip”, “format”:”html”}]”>alloy test masses as they orbited Earth in the MICROSCOPE satellite. Electrostatic forces were used by the experimental instrument to keep pairs of test masses in the same position relative to each other and looked for potential differences in these forces, which would indicate differences in the objects’ accelerations.

A significant challenge of the experiment was finding ways to test the instrument on Earth to make sure it would work as designed in space. “The difficulty is that the instrument we launch cannot operate on the ground,” says Manuel Rodrigues, a scientist at the French aerospace lab ONERA and member of the MICROSCOPE team. “So it’s a kind of blind test.”

Once the instrument was ready, it was launched by the team in 2016. They released preliminary results in 2017, but they continued to analyze the data, accounting for glitches and systematic uncertainties, after the mission ended in 2018. They ultimately found no violation of the WEP, setting the most stringent constraints on the principle yet.

Published in Physical Review Letters and a special issue of Classical Quantum Gravity on September 14, the final results from the MICROSCOPE mission measured accelerations of free-falling objects in a satellite orbiting Earth. The team found that the accelerations of pairs of objects differed by no more than about one part in 10¹⁵, ruling out any violations of the Weak Equivalence Principle or deviations from the current understanding of general relativity at that level. Credit: (c) ONERA

The team’s work paves the way for even more precise tests of the WEP with satellite experiments. Their analysis includes ways to improve the experimental setup, like reducing crackles in the satellite’s coating that affected acceleration measurements and replacing wires in the setup with contactless devices. A satellite experiment that implements these upgrades should be able to measure potential violations of the WEP at the level of one part in 10¹⁷, the researchers say. But the MICROSCOPE results will likely remain the most precise constraints on the WEP for a while.

“For at least one decade or maybe two, we don’t see any improvement with a space satellite experiment,” Rodrigues says.

References:

14 September 2022, Physical Review Letters.
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.129.121102

14 September 2022, Classical and Quantum Gravity.
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