Hypothetical long-range interactions and restrictions on their parameters from force measurements.

Abstract

Different experiments on measuring van der Waals (Casimir) and gravitational forces for obtaining restrictions on the constants of hypothetical interactions which decrease with distance on Yukawa or power-law potentials are considered. New restrictions which are based on experiments on direct force measurements (such as E\otv\os and Galileo ones, measurements of Casimir and van der Waals forces) are obtained and reviewed. Restrictions on the parameters of light elementary particles which follow from the results of force measurements are discussed. New experiments in which an optimized configuration of test bodies is used for obtaining the strongest restrictions on long-range force constants are suggested. It is possible to strengthen all contemporary restrictions by a factor of 10 and even by a factor of ten million depending on the region of parameter values in such experiments.