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Verification of the weak equivalence principle with Laue diffracting neutrons: Test experiment

  • Physics of Elementary Particles and Atomic Nuclei. Experiment
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Abstract

We propose a novel experiment to test the weak equivalence principle (WEP) for the Laue diffracting neutron. Our experiment is based on an essential magnification of an external affect on neutron diffracting by Laue for the Bragg angles close to the right one in couple with additional enhancement factor which exists due to the delay of the Laue diffracting neutron at such Bragg angles. This enhancement phenomena is proposed to be utilized for measuring the force which deviates from zero if WEP is violated. The accuracy of measuring inertial to gravitational neutron masses ratio for the introduced setup can reach ∼10−5, which is more than one order superior to the best present-day result.

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Vezhlev, E.O., Voronin, V.V., Kuznetsov, I.A. et al. Verification of the weak equivalence principle with Laue diffracting neutrons: Test experiment. Phys. Part. Nuclei Lett. 10, 357–360 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1547477113040158

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1547477113040158

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