ajb Posted February 19, 2010 Share Posted February 19, 2010 Physicists in the US and Germany have used two fundamental tenets of quantum mechanics to perform a high-precision test of Einstein's general theory of relativity. Such high-precision tests are needed to hopefully show some deviation from general relativity and point towards a quantum theory of gravity. See the IOP article here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
npts2020 Posted February 21, 2010 Share Posted February 21, 2010 Very interesting, ajb, thanks. It is surprising to me that this has not been done before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swansont Posted February 21, 2010 Share Posted February 21, 2010 Very interesting, ajb, thanks. It is surprising to me that this has not been done before. They had done it before — the Vessot rocket/maser experiment. The recent collaboration just did it better, by realizing that an existing experiment could be adapted to the problem. http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/vessot.htm And there were planned experiments to do GR tests with clocks on the ISS. NASA's projects got shut down due to budget reshuffling (from the underfunded moon/Mars proposals), and an ESA mission (ACES) has been delayed but may still fly in the next few years. http://www.spaceflight.esa.int/projects/index.cfm?act=default.page&level=12&page=829 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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