The GAUGE (GrAnd Unification and Gravity Explorer) mission proposes to use a drag-free spacecraft platform onto which a number of experiments are attached. They are designed to address a number of key issues at the interface between gravity and unification with the other forces of nature. The equivalence principle is to be probed with both a high-precision test using classical macroscopic test bodies, and, to lower precision, using microscopic test bodies via cold-atom interferometry. These two equivalence principle tests will explore string-dilaton theories and the effect of space-time fluctuations respectively. The macroscopic test bodies will also be used for intermediate-range inverse-square law and an axion-like spin-coupling search. The microscopic test bodies offer the prospect of extending the range of tests to also include short-range inverse-square law and spin-coupling measurements as well as looking for evidence of quantum decoherence due to space-time fluctuations at the Planck scale.
GAUGE: the GrAnd Unification and Gravity Explorer / AMELINO-CAMELIA, G., K., A., M., A., J. D., B., R. J., B., C., B., P., B., M., C., A. M., C., T., D., P., D., H., D., W., E., B., F., P., G., G. D., H., J., H., C., J., U., J., P., J., et al.. - In: EXPERIMENTAL ASTRONOMY. - ISSN 0922-6435. - 23:2(2009), pp. 549-572. [10.1007/s10686-008-9086-9]
GAUGE: the GrAnd Unification and Gravity Explorer
AMELINO-CAMELIA, Giovanni;
2009
Abstract
The GAUGE (GrAnd Unification and Gravity Explorer) mission proposes to use a drag-free spacecraft platform onto which a number of experiments are attached. They are designed to address a number of key issues at the interface between gravity and unification with the other forces of nature. The equivalence principle is to be probed with both a high-precision test using classical macroscopic test bodies, and, to lower precision, using microscopic test bodies via cold-atom interferometry. These two equivalence principle tests will explore string-dilaton theories and the effect of space-time fluctuations respectively. The macroscopic test bodies will also be used for intermediate-range inverse-square law and an axion-like spin-coupling search. The microscopic test bodies offer the prospect of extending the range of tests to also include short-range inverse-square law and spin-coupling measurements as well as looking for evidence of quantum decoherence due to space-time fluctuations at the Planck scale.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
