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At Cal Poly Humboldt, undergraduate researchers and faculty have constructed a torsion-pendulum experiment that seeks to measure gravitational interactions below test mass separations of 100 microns. The aim of this experiment is to look for deviations in the weak equivalence principle (WEP) and inverse-square law (ISL). The scale at which this experiment operates is within an untested range at the submillimeter scale. This apparatus’s torsion pendulum consists of equal masses with differing materials arranged as a composition dipole. The twist of this configuration is measured as an attractor mass oscillates in a parallel-plate arrangement nearby. The oscillation creates a time-dependent torque on the pendulum which can be studied for deviations in the WEP and ISL. At present, an active leveling scheme has been implemented to mediate the apparatus’s long-term tilt variations. This scheme has been optimized through the use of a power supply and proportional-integral-derivative (PID) loop that mitigates the variations in tilt by applying a voltage to a resistor attached to one of the apparatus legs. The applied voltage causes thermal expansion of the apparatus leg support structure, thus correcting and modulating the tilt of this experiment.

 

Modern short-range gravity experiments that seek to test the Newtonian inverse-square law or weak equivalence principle of general relativity typically involve measuring the minute variations in the twist angle of a torsion pendulum. Motivated by various theoretical arguments, recent efforts largely focus on measurements with test mass separations in the sub-millimeter regime. To measure the twist, many experiments employ an optical autocollimator with a noise performance of ∼300 nrad[Formula: see text] in the 0.1–10 mHz band, enabling a measurement uncertainty of a few nanoradians in a typical integration time. We investigated an alternative method for measuring a small twist angle through the construction of a modified Michelson interferometer. The main modification is the introduction of two additional arms that allow for improved angular alignment. A series of detectors and LabView software routines were developed to determine the orientation of a mirror attached to a sinusoidally driven rotation stage that oscillated with an amplitude of 0.35 mrad and a period of 200 s. In these measurements, the resolution of the interferometer is 8.1  μrad per fringe, while its dynamic range spanned 0.962 mrad. We compare the performance of this interferometric optical system to existing autocollimator-based methods, discussing its implementation, possible advantages, and future potential, as well as disadvantages and limitations. 

Due to discrepancies between the Standard Model and General Relativity, questions have arisen about the fundamental behavior of gravity. Many theories have speculated that gravity behaves fundamentally different at short ranges with respect to the predictions of Newtonian theory. These discrepancies have led the Humboldt State Gravitational Research Lab to begin constructing an experiment that will test the behavior of gravity at distances that have yet to be explored. The experiment has been improved upon in many aspects and has entered an initial data acquisition phase.