Was Newton right? A search for non-Newtonian behavior of weak-field gravity

Abstract

Abstract. Empirical tests of Einstein's metric theory of gravitation, even in the nonrelativistic, weak-field limit, could play an important role in judging theory-driven extensions of the current Standard Model of fundamental interactions. Guided by Galileo's work and his own experiments, Newton formulated a theory of gravity in which the force of attraction between two bodies is independent of composition and proportional to the inertia of each, thereby transparently satisfying Galileo's empirically informed conjecture regarding the Universality of Free Fall. Similarly, Einstein honored the manifest success of Newton's theory by assuring that the linearized equations of GTR matched the Newtonian formalism under "classical" conditions. Each of these steps, however, was explicitly an approximation raised to the status of principle. Perhaps, at some level, Newtonian gravity does not accurately describe the physical interaction between uncharged, unmagnetized, macroscopic bits of ordinary matter. What if Newton were wrong? Detecting any significant deviation from Newtonian behavior, no matter how small, could provide new insights and possibly reveal new physics. In the context of physics as an empirical science, for us this yet unanswered question constitutes sufficient motivation to attempt precision measurements of the kind described here. In this paper we report the current status of a project to search for violation of the Newtonian inverse square law of gravity.

Effects of non-Newtonian gravity on the properties of strange stars

“…In order to have a better understanding of nonNewtonian gravity, many investigations have been dedicated to study its possible existence and properties (Eckhardt et al 1988;Kamyshkov et al 2008;Gudkov et al 2011;Boynton et al 2014) and constrain its strength parameter from experimental researches (Geraci et al 2008;Lucchesi & Peron 2010;Biedermann et al 2015). In addition, this issue has attracted a great deal of attention in a nuclear physics context, for instance, it has strong effects on finite nuclei (Xu et al 2013), dark matter (Schmidt 1990), nuclear matter (Wen et al 2009;Zhang et al 2011), and neutron star processes (Sulaksono et al 2011;Wen & Zhou 2013).…”