SMuK 2021 – scientific programme

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GR: Fachverband Gravitation und Relativitätstheorie

GR 7: Experimental tests

GR 7.1: Talk

Thursday, September 2, 2021, 11:00–11:15, H9

Perspectives of measuring gravitational effects of laser light and particle beams — Felix Spengler¹, •Dennis Rätzel², and Daniel Braun¹ — ¹Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen, Institut für Theoretische Physik, 72076 Tübingen, Germany — ²Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Institut für Physik, Newtonstraße 15, 12489 Berlin, Germany

We can expect the gravitational field of light to be extremely weak. However, studying the gravitational field of light could give new fundamental insights to our understanding of space and time as well as classical and quantum gravity and it is worthwhile to investigate if gravitational effects of light may be experimentally accessible in the near future. Similarly, the gravitational properties of relativistic particle beams have not been experimentally tested. Their total relativistic mass is dominated by their kinetic energy and the same dominance for the gravitational field is predicted by general relativity. Therefore, the gravitational field of particle beams shows strong similarities to that of laser beams. In addition, both can be brought into non-trivial quantum states. We present a short overview of the gravitational properties of light and relativistic particle beams and the prospects to measure them in experiments by means of sensors based on resonant mechanical oscillators. With an optimized pendulum or torsion balance combined with the planned high-luminosity upgrade of the LHC as a source, a signal-to-noise ratio substantially larger than 1 should be achievable in principle.