2002/01/31 by Lorenzo Iorio · 2 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Geophysics and Gravity Measurements #Ionosphere and magnetosphere dynamics #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics #astro-ph #gr-qc #hep-ph #physics.space-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/s0375-9601(02)00580-7
published as Phys.Lett. A298 (2002) 315-318 · LaTex, no figures, no tables. To appear in Physics Letters A
arxiv created 2002/04/30 · openalex publication_date 2002/06/01 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
In this paper we investigate the possibility of constraining the hypothesis of a fifth force at the length scale of two Earth's radii by investigating the effects of a Yukawa gravitational potential on the orbits of the laser--ranged LAGEOS satellites. The existing constraints on the Yukawa coupling α, obtained by fitting the LAGEOS orbit, are of the order of | α| < 10-5-10-8 for distances of the order of 109 cm. Here we show that with a suitable combination of the orbital residuals of the perigee ωof LAGEOS II and the nodes Ωof LAGEOS II and LAGEOS it should be possible to constrain αat a level of 4 X 10-12 or less. Various sources of systematic errors are accounted for, as well. Their total impact amounts to 1 X 10-11 during an observational time span of 5 years. In the near future, when the new data on the terrestrial gravitational field will be available from the CHAMP and GRACE missions, these limits will be further improved. The use of the proposed LARES laser--ranged satellite would yield an experimental accuracy in constraining αof the order of 1 X 10-12.