Ephraim Fischbach - Böcker

Newton's inverse-square law of gravitation has been one of the cornerstones of physics ever since it was proposed 300 years ago. One of its most well known features is the prediction that all objects fall in a gravitational field with the same acceleration. This observation, in the form of the Equivalence Principle, is a fundamental assumption of Einstein's General Relativity Theory. This book traces the history of attempts to test the predictions of Newtonian Gravity, and describes in detail recent experimental efforts to verify both the inverse-square law and the Equivalence Principle. Interest in these questions have increased in recent years, as it has become recognized that deviations from Newtonian gravity could be a signal for a new fundamental force in nature. This is the first book devoted entirely to this subject, and will be useful to both graduate students and researchers interested in this field. This book describes in detail the ideas that underlie searches for deviations from the predictions of Newtonian gravity, focusing on macroscopic tests, since the question of gravitational effects in quantum systems would warrant a separate work. A historical development is combined with detailed technical discussions of the theoretical ideas and experimental results. A comprehensive bibliography with approximately 450 entries is provided.

Newton's inverse-square law of gravitation has been one of the cornerstones of physics ever since it was proposed 300 years ago. One of its most well known features is the prediction that all objects fall in a gravitational field with the same acceleration. This observation, in the form of the Equivalence Principle, is a fundamental assumption of Einstein's General Relativity Theory. This book traces the history of attempts to test the predictions of Newtonian Gravity, and describes in detail recent experimental efforts to verify both the inverse-square law and the Equivalence Principle. Interest in these questions have increased in recent years, as it has become recognized that deviations from Newtonian gravity could be a signal for a new fundamental force in nature. This is the first book devoted entirely to this subject, and will be useful to both graduate students and researchers interested in this field. This book describes in detail the ideas that underlie searches for deviations from the predictions of Newtonian gravity, focusing on macroscopic tests, since the question of gravitational effects in quantum systems would warrant a separate work. A historical development is combined with detailed technical discussions of the theoretical ideas and experimental results. A comprehensive bibliography with approximately 450 entries is provided.

Thisbook provides the reader with a detailed and captivating account of the storywhere, for the first time, physicists ventured into proposing a new force ofnature beyond the four known ones - the electromagnetic, weak and strongforces, and gravitation - based entirely on the reanalysis of existingexperimental data.  Back in 1986, EphraimFischbach, Sam Aronson, Carrick Talmadge and their collaborators proposed amodification of Newton’s Law of universal gravitation. Underlying this proposalwere three tantalizing pieces of evidence: 1) an energy dependence of the CP (particle-antiparticleand reflection symmetry) parameters, 2) differences between the measurements ofG, the universal gravitational constant, in laboratories and in mineshafts, and3) a reanalysis of the Eötvos experiment, which had previously been used toshow that the gravitational mass of an object and its inertia mass were equalto approximately one part in a billion. The reanalysis revealed that, contrary to Galileo’sposition, the force of gravity was in fact very slightly different fordifferent substances. The resulting Fifth Force hypothesis included thiscomposition dependence and also added a small distance dependence to theinverse-square gravitational force.Over the next four yearsnumerous experiments were performed to test the hypothesis. By 1990 there wasoverwhelming evidence that the Fifth Force, as initially proposed, did notexist. This book discusses how the Fifth Force hypothesis came to be proposedand how it went on to become a showcase of discovery, pursuit and justificationin modern physics, prior to its demise.In this new and significantly expandededition, the material from the first edition is complemented by two essays, onecontaining Fischbach’s personal reminiscences of the proposal, and a second onthe ongoing history and impact of the Fifth Force hypothesis from 1990 to thepresent.