Abstract
The Fifth Force was a proposed modification of Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation. It was suggested by three tantalizing pieces of evidence; the difference between measurements of G, the universal gravitational constant In the laboratory and the field, a two- or three-sigma energy dependence on the CP violating parameters in Ko meson decay, and a reanalysis of the Eötvös experiment which showed a dependence on the substances being tested. This provided grounds for experimental pursuit. Although the hypothesis involved both a distance and composition dependence, we will discuss only the latter. The first two experiments gave discordant results which naturally led to further experimentation. This subsequent pursuit argued very persuasively that there is no Fifth Force.
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Notes
- 1.
The other four forces were the strong, or nuclear, force, the electromagnetic force, the weak force, and the gravitational force.
- 2.
For a more details see the first-person account by Ephraim Fischbach in Franklin and Fischbach (2016, Chap. 6).
- 3.
For ordinary (baryonic) matter such as considered here, the baryon number is just the sum of the protons and neutrons adjusted to take account of the relative occurrence of isotopes. For the details on how to deal with isotopes and compounds see Fischbach and Talmadge (1999, 19–26).
- 4.
See Franklin and Laymon (2019, Chap. 4) for an account of this experiment and its history.
- 5.
- 6.
For a review of the sign problem and the extensive discussion involved see Fischbach and Talmadge (1999, pp. 8–9) and Franklin and Fischbach (2016, pp. 30–31, 180–181). And for the imprimatur eventually afforded to Fischbach’s reanalysis of the Eötvös data see De Rujala (1986b, pp. 218–220), Fischbach et al., (1988, p. 29), and Franklin and Fischbach (2016, pp. 25–26).
- 7.
See Bizzeti (1987, 82–84) for elaboration along these lines.
- 8.
Faller later remarked that the relatively modest modifications of his apparatus took six months to complete.
- 9.
These were tests of the composition dependence of the Fifth Force. There were also experimental tests of the distance dependence. These also gave discordant results, which were later resolved. For details see Franklin and Fischbach (2016, pp. 66–80). We will concentrate here on the composition dependence.
- 10.
This was the result presented at the Moriond Workshop. It used α = 0.01 and λ = 100 m, a more realistic estimate of the Fifth Force, than that used in the Physical Review Letters paper, which used α = 0.001. Fischbach used 0.007 and Thieberger used 0.008.
- 11.
- 12.
- 13.
Franklin was present at the conference.
- 14.
- 15.
For details on these experiments see Franklin and Fischbach (2016, Chap. 5).
- 16.
For an extensive review and analysis of one very distinguished line of historical origin see Franklin and Laymon (2019, Chaps. 2–4).
- 17.
In 2021, however, Fischbach and his collaborators proposed a revival of the search for the Fifth Force with recommended modifications. “Indications of a possible composition-dependent fifth force, based on a reanalysis of the Eötvös experiment, have not been supported by a number of modern experiments. Here, we argue that searching for a composition-dependent fifth force necessarily requires data from experiments in which the acceleration differences of three or more independent pairs of test samples of varying composition are determined. We suggest that a new round of fifth-force experiments is called for, in each of which three or more different pairs of samples are compared” (Fischbach et al., 2021).
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Laymon, R., Franklin, A. (2022). Is There a Fifth Force?. In: Case Studies in Experimental Physics. Synthesis Lectures on Engineering, Science, and Technology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12608-6_4
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