PICOMETER LASER GAUGING TO TEST GENERAL RELATIVITY

摘要

The equivalence principle is an essential postulate of general relativity. It has been a subject of interest for 15 centuries, and investigated experimentally for at least four centuries. The universality of free fall (UFF) is an aspect of the equivalence principle. The UFF requires that a body moving solely under the influence of gravity follow a trajectory that is independent of the composition of the body. In an equivalence principle failure, one might have two bodies falling under the same conditions and showing a differential acceleration.