Reanalysis of the Eotvos Experiment

If 5 V(r) actually describes the effects of a new force, and is not just a parametrization of some other systematic effects, then its presence would be expected to manifest itself elsewhere as well. Recently, we have Here VN(r) is the usual Newtonian potential energy for two masses m ~ 2 separated by a distance r, and 6 is the Newtonian constant of gravitation for r The geophysical data can then be accounted for quantitatively if o. and A. have the values undertaken an exhaustive search for the presence of such a force in other systems. Our analysis, to be presented elsewhere, 3 leads to the conclusion that if such a force existed it would show up at present sensitivity levels in only three additional places: (i) the K -K system at high laboratory energies, where in fact anomalous effects have previously been reported; (ii) a comparison of satellite and terrestrial determinationss of the local gravitational acceleration g; and (iii) the original Eotvos experiment which compared the acceleration of various materials to the Earth. We note that the subsequent repetitions of the Eotvos experiment by Roll, Krotkov, and Dicke and by Braginskii and Panov compared the gravitational accelerations of a pair of test materials to the Sun, and hence would not have been sensitive to the intermediaterange force described by Eqs. (1) and (2). Motivated by our general analysis, we returned to the Eotvos experiment and asked whether there is evidence in their data of the presence of 5 V(r) in Eq. (I). Although the Eotvos experiment has been universally interpreted as having given null results, we find in fact that this is not the case. Furthermore, we will demonstrate explicitly that the published data of Eotvos, Pekar and