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. 2017 Dec 8;119(23):231101.
doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.231101. Epub 2017 Dec 4.

MICROSCOPE Mission: First Results of a Space Test of the Equivalence Principle

Pierre Touboul  1 , Gilles Métris  2 , Manuel Rodrigues  1 , Yves André  3 , Quentin Baghi  2 , Joël Bergé  1 , Damien Boulanger  1 , Stefanie Bremer  4 , Patrice Carle  1 , Ratana Chhun  1 , Bruno Christophe  1 , Valerio Cipolla  3 , Thibault Damour  5 , Pascale Danto  3 , Hansjoerg Dittus  6 , Pierre Fayet  7 , Bernard Foulon  1 , Claude Gageant  1 , Pierre-Yves Guidotti  3 , Daniel Hagedorn  8 , Emilie Hardy  1 , Phuong-Anh Huynh  1 , Henri Inchauspe  1 , Patrick Kayser  1 , Stéphanie Lala  1 , Claus Lämmerzahl  4 , Vincent Lebat  1 , Pierre Leseur  1 , Françoise Liorzou  1 , Meike List  4 , Frank Löffler  8 , Isabelle Panet  9 , Benjamin Pouilloux  3 , Pascal Prieur  3 , Alexandre Rebray  1 , Serge Reynaud  10 , Benny Rievers  4 , Alain Robert  3 , Hanns Selig  4 , Laura Serron  2 , Timothy Sumner  11 , Nicolas Tanguy  1 , Pieter Visser  12
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Free article

MICROSCOPE Mission: First Results of a Space Test of the Equivalence Principle

Pierre Touboul et al. Phys Rev Lett. .
Free article

Abstract

According to the weak equivalence principle, all bodies should fall at the same rate in a gravitational field. The MICROSCOPE satellite, launched in April 2016, aims to test its validity at the 10^{-15} precision level, by measuring the force required to maintain two test masses (of titanium and platinum alloys) exactly in the same orbit. A nonvanishing result would correspond to a violation of the equivalence principle, or to the discovery of a new long-range force. Analysis of the first data gives δ(Ti,Pt)=[-1±9(stat)±9(syst)]×10^{-15} (1σ statistical uncertainty) for the titanium-platinum Eötvös parameter characterizing the relative difference in their free-fall accelerations.

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