Search for non-Newtonian interactions at micrometer scale with a levitated test mass
Abstract
We report on a search for non-Newtonian forces that couple to mass, with a characteristic scale of ∼10 μ m , using an optically levitated microsphere as a precision force sensor. A silica microsphere trapped in an upward-propagating, single-beam, optical tweezer is utilized to probe for interactions sourced from a nanofabricated attractor mass with a density modulation brought into close proximity to the microsphere and driven along the axis of periodic density in order to excite an oscillating response. We obtain a force sensitivity of ≲10-16 N /√{Hz } . Separately searching for attractive and repulsive forces results in the constraint on a new Yukawa interaction of |α |≳108 for λ >10 μ m . This is the first test of the inverse-square law using an optically levitated test mass of dimensions comparable to λ , a complementary method subject to a different set of systematic effects compared to more established techniques.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review D
- Pub Date:
- September 2021
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevD.104.L061101
- arXiv:
- arXiv:2102.06848
- Bibcode:
- 2021PhRvD.104f1101B
- Keywords:
-
- High Energy Physics - Experiment;
- Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors;
- Physics - Optics
- E-Print:
- Phys. Rev. D 104, 061101 (2021)