Reanalysis of the Eotvos experiment
Abstract
We present here the details for our reanalysis of the experiment of Eotvos, Pekar, and Fekete (EPF). After outlining the original motivation for reexamining the EPF paper, the history of this experiment is reviewed in some detail. A phenomenological framework is developed for describing the EPF and other similar experiments, and this is then applied to analyzing the EPF data. It is shown that these data evidence a strong correlation between the measured fractional acceleration differences of various sample pairs of materials, and the corresponding differences of baryon number-to-mass ratios. Such a correlation can result from a coupling of the test masses to an intermediate-range field whose source is baryon number, and it is shown that the properties of this field which emerge from the geophysical data provide a good description of the EPF results. It is further demonstrated that no other known mechanism, either conventional or otherwise, provides an adequate explanation of these data. Various experiments to check the EPF results are described, and a general overview of the various classes of experiments is given. In Appendix A the effects of local mass inhomogeneities are analyzed, which appear to represent the dominant sources in Eotvos-like experiments, and in the other Appendices more detailed discussions of the various aspects of this analysis are given.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Fischbach, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Physics
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