Search for Lorentz invariance violation by tests of the gravitational inverse square law at short ranges

Abstract

We review the recent development on search for Lorentz invariance violation by tests of the gravitational inverse square law at short ranges. Inverse-square law tests usually use planar geometry to search for the non-Newtonian gravity, which are also well suited for exploration of local Lorentz invariance for spacetime-based gravitation. Recent studies of Lorentz invariance violation in pure gravity sector show that the general quadratic curvature coupling will lead to interesting new effects in short range experiments, resulting in the sidereal variations in the non-Newtonian force between two metal plates at short ranges. We show that the Lorentz invariance violation force between two finite flat plates is dominated by the edge effects, which adds an extra suppression factor. Nevertheless, the best current constraints of the Lorentz invariance violating coefficients are determined at a level of 10-8 m2.