Physics (Internal)

Recent Gravitational Experiments and their Implications for Particle Physics

This event is part of the Physics Department Colloquia Series.

Laboratory studies of gravity have attained sensitivities that probe interesting ideas at the interface of particle physics and gravitation. I will discuss the experimental techniques, results and implications of:

1. recent tests of the Inverse-Square Law that probe length scales below the 85 micrometer scale associated with the observed dark-energy density
2. Equivalence Principle tests involving laboratory objects, astronomical bodies and galactic dark matter.
3. sensitive tests with electron spins sensitive to Planck-scale Lorentz-symmetry violation and constrain non-commutatitve geometries at the 10^13 GeV scale.