2002/02/01 by E. G. Adelberger, for the EÖT-WASH GROUP · 4 citations
Engineering · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Aerospace engineering #Combinatorics #Computer science #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Dimension (graph theory) #Engineering #Geometry #Gravitation #Inverse #Inverse-square law #Law #Limit (mathematics) #Mathematical analysis #Mathematics #Millimeter #Optics #Physics #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Quantum mechanics #Range (aeronautics) #Relativity and Gravitational Theory #Square (algebra) #Theoretical physics #Unification #Work (physics) #Yukawa potential #hep-ex
paper · pdf · doi:10.1142/9789812778123_0002
7 pages, 2figs
openalex publication_date 2002/02/01 · arxiv created 2002/02/02 · arxiv updated 2017/08/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Sub-mm tests of the gravitational inverse-square law are interesting from several quite different perspectives. This paper discusses work by the Eöt-Wash group performed since the publication of our initial result in February 2001. We find no evidence for short-range Yukawa interactions. Our results provide an upper limit of 200 µm on the size of the largest “extra ” dimension, and for the unification scenario with 2 large extra dimensions, set an upper limit of 150 µm on the size of those dimensions. 1 What might be special about gravity at length scales below 1 mm? Very little is known about gravity at length scales below a few mm 1. Recently theorists, using several different arguments, have suggested that the unexplored short-range regime of gravitation may hold profound surprises 2,3,4,5, i.e. that the gravitational interaction could display fundamentally new behavior in the mm regime. Many of these arguments are based on the notion, inherent in string or M theory, of more than 3 spatial dimensions. To maintain consistency with a vast body of observations the extra dimensions must be “curled up ” in very small regions, usually assumed to be comparable to RP = √ G¯h/c 3 = 1.6 × 10 −33 cm, or else hidden in some other way 6. It has recently been noted 2,3 that the enormous discrepancy between natural mass scales of the Standard Model of particle physics (MSM ≈ 1 TeV) and of gravity (the Planck mass MP = √ ¯hc/G = 1.2×10 16 TeV) could be eliminated if gravity propagates in all the space dimensions while the other fundamental interactions are constrained to the three familiar dimensions. This unification scenario requires that some of the extra dimensions have radii R ∗ that are large compared to RP with