PT4 - Precision Tests of Special Relativity |
Speaker_ |
Murphy, Tom |
Co-autors |
E. G. Adelberger, J. F. Battat, C. D. Hoyle, E. L. Michelsen, A. E. Orin, C. W. Stubbs, H. E. Swanson |
Talk _ |
APOLLO: Next-Generation Lunar Laser Ranging |
Abstract _ |
APOLLO (the Apache Point Observatory Lunar Laser-ranging Operation) is a newly operational laser ranging facility in southern New Mexico capable of one-millimeter range precision to the moon. In its commissioning phase, APOLLO has received as many as 2,500 return photons in a ten minute period. Half of the return photons are bundled in multi-photon return pulses. Within a year of the campaign start (June 2006), APOLLO will be able to make order-of-magnitude refinements to the best available measurements of the strong and weak equivalence principles and of the phenomenon of gravitomagnetism (frame dragging). A longer campaign will produce order-of-magnitude gains in measuring the time-rate-of-change of the gravitational constant, and will be sensitive to departures from the inverse square law. |