non-Newtonian Gravity Research Articles

Probing Non-Newtonian Gravity by Taking Advantage of Criticality Based on a Hybrid Electro-Optomechanical System

Probing Non-Newtonian Gravity by Taking Advantage of Criticality Based on a Hybrid Electro-Optomechanical System

Vertical displacement of a non-Newtonian Bingham plastic by a Newtonian phase in an axially composite reservoir

In general, oil reservoirs may consist of composite sedimentary structures composed of materials such as sand, clay, or limestone, which exhibit varying lithology due to sedimentary processes. A comprehensive knowledge of this lithology is essential for accurately assessing their hydrocarbon storage and production capacity. Additionally, this information is indispensable for the implementation of various recovery techniques such as waterflooding, gas injection, surfactant injection, polymer injection, alkaline water solution injection, and others. Highly viscous oil can exhibit non-Newtonian behavior during water injection in certain cases. The use of surfactants, alkaline, or polymer solutions in enhanced oil recovery also introduces non-Newtonian behavior. Recovery methods face challenges when non-Newtonian phases, gravity, and reservoir heterogeneity are combined. Against this backdrop, this work presents a mathematical model for immiscible two-phase flow in an axially composite reservoir with a periodic-layered structure. The model considers a non-Newtonian plastic Bingham-type phase extension of the Buckley-Leverett model. To address the porous medium’s heterogeneity with discontinuous flux functions, the numerical solutions were obtained using the Lax-Friedrichs and Lagrangian-Eulerian schemes. The numerical solutions were compared to analytical solutions obtained using an extended version of Oleinik’s geometric construction for discontinuous flux functions. The outcomes display shock and rarefaction waves, as well as a fixed shock due to the porous medium heterogeneity. The numerical results closely correspond with the analytical solutions, seen particularly in the greater accuracy of the Lagrangian-Eulerian method compared to the Lax-Friedrichs method.

Enhancing non-Newtonian gravity constraint using a levitated pendulum in vacuum

The detection of non-Newtonian gravity is crucial for fundamental physics research and our understanding of dark energy. However, conducting an experiment that provides explicit evidence of its existence remains an endeavour. We propose an experiment utilizing a diamagnetically levitated pendulum in vacuum to detect non-Newtonian gravity on a micrometer scale. The pendulum configuration effectively helps to shield electromagnetic force fluctuations in the vacuum levitation system. The structural parameters of the pendulum are intentionally optimized to enhance the constraint on the non-Newtonian gravity strength α. The designed pendulum can be stably levitated in the diamagnetic trap thanks to its passive levitation mechanism. By conducting resonance force measurements at room temperature for a duration of 104 s, we anticipate a significant improvement in the constraint on the non-Newtonian gravity strength (α≥28) within the force range of λ=7.6 µm. This represents an enhancement of over three orders of magnitude compared to the current limit. This study presents a promising tool for investigating short-range forces and exploring frontier physics in tabletop laboratory.

Confronting Strange Stars with Compact-Star Observations and New Physics

Strange stars ought to exist in the universe according to the strange quark matter hypothesis, which states that matter made of roughly equal numbers of up, down, and strange quarks could be the true ground state of baryonic matter rather than ordinary atomic nuclei. Theoretical models of strange quark matter, such as the standard MIT bag model, the density-dependent quark mass model, or the quasi-particle model, however, appear to be unable to reproduce some of the properties (masses, radii, and tidal deformabilities) of recently observed compact stars. This is different if alternative gravity theory (e.g., non-Newtonian gravity) or dark matter (e.g., mirror dark matter) are considered, which resolve these issues. The possible existence of strange stars could thus provide a clue to new physics, as discussed in this review.

Nonrelativistic limit of scalar and Dirac fields in curved spacetime

We give from first principles the non-relativistic limit of scalar and Dirac fields in curved spacetime. We aim to find general relativistic corrections to the quantum theory of particles affected by Newtonian gravity, a regime nowadays experimentally accessible. We believe that the ever-improving measurement accuracy and the theoretical interest in finding general relativistic effects in quantum systems require the introduction of corrections to the Schr\"{o}dinger-Newtonian theory. We rigorously determine these corrections by the non-relativistic limit of fully relativistic quantum theories in curved spacetime. For curved static spacetimes, we show how a non-inertial observer (equivalently, an observer in the presence of a gravitational field) can distinguish a scalar field from a Dirac field by particle-gravity interaction. We study the Rindler spacetime and discuss the difference between the resulting non-relativistic Hamiltonians. We find that for sufficiently large acceleration, the gravity-spin coupling dominates over the corrections for scalar fields, promoting Dirac particles as the best candidates for observing non-Newtonian gravity in quantum particle phenomenology.

How to Strengthen Constraints on Non-Newtonian Gravity from Measuring the Lateral Casimir Force

It has been known that in the nanometer interaction range the available experimental data do not exclude the Yukawa-type corrections to Newton’s gravitational law, which exceed the Newtonian gravitational force by many orders of magnitude. The strongest constraints on the parameters of Yukawa-type interaction in this interaction range follow from the experiments on neutron scattering and from measurements of the lateral and normal Casimir forces between corrugated surfaces. In this work, we demonstrate that by optimizing the experimental configuration at the expense of the higher corrugation amplitudes and smaller periods of corrugations it is possible to considerably strengthen the currently available constraints within the wide interaction range from 4.5 to 37 nm. We show that the maximum strengthening by more than a factor of 40 is reachable for the interaction range of 19 nm.

Constraining the axion-nucleon coupling and non-Newtonian gravity with a levitated optomechanical device

In the paper, we propose a scheme to constrain the axion-to-nucleon interaction and non-Newtonian gravity. Here, we consider a levitated optomechanical system consisting of a silica nanosphere and an optical cavity. The total force gradient exerted on this nanosphere modifies its resonance frequency. Based on this, we have developed a quantum optical method to detect and constrain the two exotic forces. Also, we have established prospective constraints on axion-neucleon coupling constants and the Yukawa interaction constant. In addition, these constraints significantly improve the existing bounds.

MICROSCOPE’s constraint on a short-range fifth force

The MICROSCOPE experiment was designed to test the weak equivalence principle in space, by comparing the low-frequency dynamics of cylindrical ‘free-falling’ test masses controlled by electrostatic forces. We use data taken during technical sessions aimed at estimating the electrostatic stiffness of MICROSCOPE’s sensors to constrain a short-range Yukawa deviation from Newtonian gravity. We take advantage of the fact that in the limit of small displacements, the gravitational interaction (both Newtonian and Yukawa-like) between nested cylinders is linear, and thus simply characterised by a stiffness. By measuring the total stiffness of the forces acting on a test mass as it moves, and comparing it with the theoretical electrostatic stiffness (expected to dominate), it is a priori possible to infer constraints on the Yukawa potential parameters. However, we find that measurement uncertainties are dominated by the gold wires used to control the electric charge of the test masses, though their related stiffness is indeed smaller than the expected electrostatic stiffness. Moreover, we find a non-zero unaccounted for stiffness that depends on the instrument’s electric configuration, hinting at the presence of patch-field effects. Added to significant uncertainties on the electrostatic model, they only allow for poor constraints on the Yukawa potential. This is not surprising, as MICROSCOPE was not designed for this measurement, but this analysis is the first step to new experimental searches for non-Newtonian gravity in space.

Why Is the Mean Anomaly at Epoch Not Used in Tests of Non-Newtonian Gravity?

The mean anomaly at epoch η is one of the standard six Keplerian orbital elements in terms of which the motion of the two-body problem is parameterized. Along with the argument of pericenter ω, η experiences long-term rates of change induced, among other things, by general relativity and several modified models of gravity. Thus, in principle, it may be fruitfully adopted together with ω in several tests of post-Newtonian gravity performed with astronomical and astrophysical binary systems. This would allow us to enhance the gravitational signature we are interested in and to disentangle some competing disturbing effects acting as sources of systematic bias. Nonetheless, for some reasons unknown to the present author, η has never been used so far by astronomers in actual data reductions. This note aims to raise interest in the community about the possible practical use of such an orbital element or, at least, to induce experts in astronomical data processing to explicitly make clear if it is not possible to use η for testing gravitational models and, if this is the case, why.

Emergence of extended Newtonian gravity from thermodynamics

Discovery of a novel thermodynamic aspect of nonrelativistic gravity is reported. Here, initially, an unspecified scalar field potential is considered and treated not as an externally applied field but as a thermodynamic variable on an equal footing with the fluid variables. It is shown that the second law of thermodynamics imposes a stringent constraint on the field, and, quite remarkably, the allowable field turns out to be only of gravity. The resulting field equation for the gravitational potential derived from the analysis of the entropy production rate contains a dissipative term due to irreversibility. It is found that the system relaxes to the conventional theory of Newtonian gravity up to a certain spatial scale, whereas on the larger scale there emerges non-Newtonian gravity described by a nonlinear field equation containing a single coefficient. A comment is made on an estimation of the coefficient that has its origin in the thermodynamic property of the system.

Dark Matter Axions, Non-Newtonian Gravity and Constraints on Them from Recent Measurements of the Casimir Force in the Micrometer Separation Range

We consider axionlike particles as the most probable constituents of dark matter, the Yukawa-type corrections to Newton’s gravitational law and constraints on their parameters following from astrophysics and different laboratory experiments. After a brief discussion of the results by Prof. Yu. N. Gnedin in this field, we turn our attention to the recent experiment on measuring the differential Casimir force between Au-coated surfaces of a sphere and the top and bottom of rectangular trenches. In this experiment, the Casimir force was measured over an unusually wide separation region from 0.2 to 8μm and compared with the exact theory based on first principles of quantum electrodynamics at nonzero temperature. We use the measure of agreement between experiment and theory to obtain the constraints on the coupling constant of axionlike particles to nucleons and on the interaction strength of a Yukawa-type interaction. The constraints obtained on the axion-to-nucleon coupling constant and on the strength of a Yukawa interaction are stronger by factors of 4 and 24, respectively, than those found previously from gravitational experiments and measurements of the Casimir force but weaker than the constraints following from a differential measurement where the Casimir force was nullified. Some other already performed and planned experiments aimed at searching for axions and non-Newtonian gravity are discussed, and their prospects are evaluated.

Non-Newtonian gravity in strange stars and constraints from the observations of compact stars

We study non-Newtonian gravity effects on the structure and the tidal deformability of strange stars using the standard MIT model, and compare the theory with the observations of compact stars following the approach of Yang et al. (2020). Different to Yang et al. (2020), in which the authors only employed the constraints from the mass of PSR J0740+6620 and the dimensionless tidal deformability of a 1.4M⊙ star of GW170817, here we also consider another constraint, namely, from the observations of the mass and radius of the isolated pulsar PSR J0030+0451 by NICER. We find that for the standard MIT model, strange stars can not agree with the observations of PSR J0740+6620, PSR J0030+0451 and GW170817 simultaneously. In other words, for the standard MIT model, the observations of PSR J0740+6620, PSR J0030+0451 and GW170817 rule out the possibility of the existence of strange stars even when we consider the effects of non-Newtonian gravity.

Submillimeter constraints for non-Newtonian gravity from spectroscopy

In this work, we consider the Yukawa-type and power-type non-Newtonian corrections, which induce amplification of the gravitational interaction on submillimeter scales, and analytically calculate deviations produced by the atomic gravitational field on the energy levels of hydrogen-like ions. Analyzing ionic transitions between Rydberg states, we derive prospective constraints for non-Newtonian corrections. It is shown that the results also provide stronger constraints, due to the high accuracy for Rydberg transition measures into the optical spectrum frequency range, than the current empirical bounds following from Casimir force measurements.

Constraints from compact star observations on non-Newtonian gravity in strange stars based on a density dependent quark mass model

Using a density dependent quark mass (QMDD) model for strange quark matter, we investigate the effects of non-Newtonian gravity on the properties of strange stars and constrain the parameters of the QMDD model by employing the mass of PSR J0740+6620 and the tidal deformability of GW170817. We find that for QMDD model these mass and tidal deformability observations would rule out the existenceof str ange stars if non-Newtonian gravity effects are ignored. For the current quark masses of $m_{u0}=2.16$ MeV, $m_{d0}=4.67$ MeV, and $m_{s0}=93$ MeV, we find that a strange star can exist for values of the non-Newtonian gravity parameter $g^{2}/\mu^{2}$ in the range of 4.58 GeV$^{-2}\leq g^{2}/\mu^{2}\leq$ 9.32 GeV$^{-2}$, and that the parameters $D$ and $C$ of the QMDD modelare restricted to 158.3 MeV$\leq D^{1/2}\leq$ 181.2 MeV and $-0.65\leq C \leq -0.12$. It is found that the largest possible maximum mass of a strange star obtained with the QMDD model is $2.42 \, M_{\odot}$, and that the secondary componentof GW190814 with a mass of 2.59_{-0.09}^{+0.08}\, M_{\dot} could not be a static strange star. We also find that forthe mass and radius of PSR J0030+0451 given by Riley et al. through the analysis of observational data of NICER, there exists a very tiny allowed parameter space for which strange stars computed for the QMDD model agree with the observations of PSR J0740+6620, GW17 0817 and PSR J0030+0451 simultaneously. However, for the mass and radius given by Miller et al., no such parameter space exist.

Non-Newtonian Gravity in Strange Quark Stars and Constraints from the Observations of PSR J0740+6620 and GW170817

Abstract We investigate the effects of non-Newtonian gravity on the properties of strange quark stars (QSs) and constrain the parameters of the standard MIT bag model used to describe strange quark matter (SQM) by employing the mass of PSR J0740+6620 and the tidal deformability of GW170817. We find that, for the standard MIT bag model, these mass and tidal deformability observations would rule out the existence of QSs if non-Newtonian gravity effects are ignored. For a strange quark mass of m s = 95 MeV, we find that QSs can exist for values of the non-Newtonian gravity parameter g 2/μ 2 in the range of 1.37 GeV−2 ≤ g 2/μ 2 ≤ 7.28 GeV−2 and limits on the bag constant and the strong interaction coupling constant of the SQM model given by 141.3 MeV ≤ B 1/4 ≤ 150.9 MeV and α S ≤ 0.56. For a strange quark mass of m s = 150 MeV, QSs can exist for 1.88 GeV−2 ≤ g 2/μ 2 ≤ 6.27 GeV−2 and limits on the parameters of the SQM model given by 139.7 MeV ≤ B 1/4 ≤ 147.3 MeV and α S ≤ 0.49.

Ramsey Gravity Resonance Spectroscopy with Ultracold Neutrons

Neutrons appear to be ideal test particles to search for non-Newtonian gravity at micrometer separations, as with their vanishing electrostatic sensitivity they avoid many of the problems appearing with other test masses. Over the past decade, the qBounce collaboration has developed a technique named gravity resonance spectroscopy (GRS) that allows probing the bound states of ultracold neutrons in the Earth’s gravitational field. With the successful implementation of Ramsey spectroscopy and long interaction times, the setup presented promises to test Einstein’s gravity with unprecedented sensitivity.

Dispersion induced by non-Newtonian gravity flow in a layered fracture or formation

Abstract

The State of the Art in Constraining Axion-to-Nucleon Coupling and Non-Newtonian Gravity from Laboratory Experiments

Constraints on the Yukawa-type corrections to Newton’s gravitational law and on the coupling constant of axionlike particles to nucleons obtained from different laboratory experiments are reviewed and compared. The constraints on non-Newtonian gravity under discussion cover the wide interaction range from nanometers to millimeters and follow from the experiments on neutron scattering, measuring the Casimir force and Cavendish-type experiments. The constraints on the axion-to-nucleon coupling constant following from the magnetometer measurements, Cavendish-type experiments, Casimir physics, and experiments with beams of molecular hydrogen are considered, which refer to the region of axion masses from 10−10 to 200 eV. Particular attention is given to the recent constraints obtained from measuring the Casimir force at nanometer separation distance between the test bodies. Several proposed experiments focussed on constraining the non-Newtonian gravity, axionlike particles and other hypothetical weakly interacting particles, such as chameleons and symmetrons, are discussed.

Constraints on non-Newtonian gravity and axionlike particles from measuring the Casimir force in nanometer separation range

We obtain constraints on the Yukawa-type corrections to Newton's gravitational law and on the coupling constant of axionlike particles to nucleons following from the experiment on measuring the Casimir force between an Au-coated microsphere and a silicon carbide plate. For this purpose, both the Yukawa-type force and the force due to two-axion exchange between nucleons are calculated in the experimental configuration. In the interaction range of Yukawa force exceeding 1 nm and for axion masses above 17.8 eV, the obtained constraints are much stronger than those found previously from measuring the lateral Casimir force between sinusoidally corrugated surfaces. These results are compared with the results of other laboratory experiments on constraining non-Newtonian gravity and axionlike particles in the relevant interaction ranges.

Measurement of the Newtonian constant of gravitation G by precision displacement sensors

The Newtonian constant of gravitation G historically has the largest relative uncertainty over all other fundamental constants with some discrepancies in values between different measurements. We propose a new scheme to measure G by detecting the position of a test mass in a precision displacement sensor induced by a force modulation from periodically rotating source masses. To seek different kinds of experimental setups, laser interferometers for the gravitational wave detection and optically-levitated microspheres are analyzed. The high sensitivity of the gravitational wave detectors to the displacement is advantageous to have a high signal-to-noise ratio of 10−6 with a few hours of the measurement time, whereas the tunability of parameters in optically-levitated microspheres can enable competitive measurements with a smaller scale setup dedicated to the G measurement. To achieve an accuracy of G better than currently available measurements, developments in force calibration is essential. These measurements can provide an alternative method to measure G precisely, potentially leading to the improvement in the accuracy of G, as well as a better search for non-Newtonian gravity at a length scale of ∼1 m.