last updated 9/20/2014 Gravity Lab Experimental Gravitation Program Department of Physics and Astronomy University of California, Irvine University of California Irvine Department of Physics and Astronomy 4129 Frederick Reines Hall Irvine, CA 92697-4575 (949) 824-7629 UCI (949) 824-2174 fax

Principal Investigator: Professor Riley D. Newman, rdnewman@uci.edu or rileynew@gmail.com Colleagues: Professor Paul Boynton, University of Washington, Seattle, boynton@uw.edu Dr. Eric C. Berg, UCI Associate Project Scientist through 2014, gravity@ecberg.com Dr. Michael K. Bantel, UCI Ph.D. thesis and postdoc through 2001, bantel@exoanalytic.com Dr. William D. Cross, UCI Ph.D. thesis 2009, wcross@alumni.ucsd.edu Dr. Zhong-Kun Hu, 2005 Visiting Professor Wu-Han University, China, zkhu@mail.hust.edu.cn Undergraduate employees and senior thesis projects included: Jaim Bucay, senior thesis, 2007 David Goekjian, employee, 2006 Melissa Tong, senior thesis, 2005 Jason Yu-Hene Siu, senior thesis and employee, 2005 Janelle Clausen, senior thesis and employee, 2004

Research Program
(This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant nos. 0404514 and 0701707)

The UCI Gravity Lab uses torsion pendulums operating at cryogenic temperature to perform tests of Newtonian gravity, the equivalence principle, and searches for new forces. The program includes:

Remote Experimental Site (BGPL)

The apparatus was designed, constructed and tested at UC Irvine, to operate at a remote underground site near Richland, Washington. The Battelle Gravitation Physics Laboratory (BGPL) is prepared in a former Nike missile bunker on the Department of Energy's Hanford Site, and is a close neighbor of the CalTech-MIT LIGO gravity wave observatory. 

The site has numerous advantages.  Located on the Arid Lands Ecology Reserve it is far from and closed to public access, minimizing cultural noise sources. The semi-arid desert's minimal rainfall reduces the variations in mass distribution due to groundwater.  Being on the slopes of Rattlesnake Mountain, a 3630 foot elevation treeless basalt mountain, it is in a region of unusually low microseismic background noise. 

Publications

2014 "A Measurement of G with a Cryogenic Torsion Pendulum", (available here)
R. Newman, M. Bantel, E. Berg, W. Cross,
The Royal Society's "The Newtonian constant of gravitation, a constant too difficult to measure?" proceedings from February 2014
Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A October 13, Vol. 372, 2026, 2014.
Copyright (2014) The Royal Society. This article may be downloaded for personal use only.
Any other use requires prior permission of the author and The Royal Society.

2014 "Was Newton right? A search for non-Newtonian behavior of weak-field gravity", PDF (2078 kB)
Paul Boynton, Michael Moore, Riley Newman, Eric Berg, Ricco Bonicalzi, Keven McKenney,
Euro. Phys. J. Web of Conferences, Vol. 74, 04001, 2014. (ISEG 5 conference proceedings from July 2013).  
Our copyright permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

2014 "Measurement of G using a Cryogenic Torsion Pendulum: Post-2008 Analysis Rewview",  PDF (1276 kB)
Riley Newman, Mike Bantel, Eric Berg, Liam Cross,
Euro. Phys. J. Web of Conferences, Vol. 74, 01001, 2014. (ISEG 5 conference proceedings from July 2013).
Our copyright permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

2011 "Progress on a New Experimental Test of the Gravitational Inverse-Sqaure Law", PDF (161 kB) 
R.M. Bonicalzi, P.E. Boynton, M.W. Moore, R.D. Newman, E.C. Berg, 
in Proceedings of the 12th Marcel Grossmann Meeting on General Relativity, Paris 2009.
eds. T. Damour, R.T. Jantzen and R. Ruffini, World Scientific, (2011).
Copyright (2011) World Scientific. This article may be downloaded for personal use only.
Any other use requires prior permission of the author and World Scientific.
The following article will appear in and be found at [World Scientific Books].

2009 "Tests of Gravitational Inverse Square Law at Short Ranges", PDF (1219kB)
R.D. Newman, E.C. Berg, P.E. Boynton, Space Science Reviews 148, 175 (2009).
Copyright (2009) Springer. This article may be downloaded for personal use only.
Any other use requires prior permission of the author and Springer.
The following article appeared in and may be found at [Space Science Reviews 148, p175].

2009 "Systematic Error Sources in a Measurement of G using a Cryogenic Torsion Pendulum", PDF (1292kB)
W.D. Cross, Ph.D. Thesis, University of California, Irvine (2009)
Copyright (2009) Elsevier. This article may be downloaded for personal use only.
Any other use requires prior permission of the author.

2008 "Measuring the Gravitational Constant with a Cryogenic Torsion Pendulum", PDF (227kB)
M.K.Bantel, E.C.Berg, W.D. Cross, R.D.Newman,
in Proceedings of the Conference on Precision Electromagnetic Measurements, Denver 2008, 2pp. abstract.
Copyright (2008) Elsevier. This article may be downloaded for personal use only.
Any other use requires prior permission of the author and Publisher.

2007 "Gravitational Physics at BGPL", PDF (238kB)
P.E.Boynton, R.M.Bonicalzi, A.M.Kalet, A.M.Kleczewski, J.K.Lingwood, K.J. McKenney, M.W. Moore, J.H.Steffen, E.C. Berg, W.D. Cross, R.D.Newman, R.E.Gephart. New Astronomy Reviews 51, 334 (2007).
Copyright (2007) Elsevier. This article may be downloaded for personal use only.
Any other use requires prior permission of the author and Elsevier.
The following article appeared in and may be found at [ New Astronomy Reviews Vol.51, Issue 3-4,p334].

2005 "Laboratory Tests of Gravitational Physics Using a Cryogenic Torsion Pendulum", PDF (6150 kB) 
E.C.Berg, M.K.Bantel, W.D.Cross, T.Inoue, R.D.Newman, J.H.Steffen, M.W.Moore, P.E.Boynton,
in Proceedings of the 10th Marcel Grossmann Meeting on General Relativity, Rio de Janeiro 2003.
eds. M.N. Novello and S.P. Bergliaffa, World Scientific, pp. 994-1010 (2005).
Copyright (2006) World Scientific. This article may be downloaded for personal use only.
Any other use requires prior permission of the author and World Scientific.
The following article appeared in and may be found at [ISBN 981-256-667-8].

2004 "Planned Tests of the Equivalence Principle with a Cryogenic Torsion Pendulum", PDF (4212 kB)
E.C.Berg, W.D.Cross, R.D.Newman, P.E.Boynton, M.W.Moore, J.H.Steffen,
in Proceedings of the Conference on Testing the Equivalence Principle in Space and on Ground, Pescara, Italy, 2004.
eds. C.Lämmerzahl, C.W.F.Everitt and R.Ruffini
was also accepted for publication in the text "Testing the Equivalence Principle on Ground and in Space";
however as of 2012, the text was never published (in the Lecture Notes of Physics series published by Springer).

2004 "Progress in the Measurement of the Gravitational Constant Using a Cryogenic Torsion Pendulum", PDF (125 kB)
E.C.Berg, M.K.Bantel, R.D.Newman,
in Proceedings of the Conference on Precision Electromagnetic Measurements, London 2004, 2pp. abstract.
Copyright (2004) National Physics Laboratory, London, UK. This article may be downloaded for personal use only.
Any other use requires prior permission of the author and National Physics Laboratory.
The following article appeared in and may be found at [ NPL Store: CPEM 2004].

2002 "A Measurement of the Gravitational Constant Using a Cryogenic Torsion Pendulum", PDF (515 kB)
M.K.Bantel, E.C.Berg, R.D.Newman,
in Proceedings of the Conference on Precision Electromagnetic Measurements, Ottawa 2002, pp. 146-147.
Copyright (2002) IEEE. This article may be downloaded for personal use only.
Any other use requires prior permission of the author and IEEE.
The following article appeared in and may be found at [ ISBN: 0780372433].

2002 "Determining the Gravitational Constant using a Cryogenic Torsion Pendulum", PDF (249 kB)
M.K.Bantel and R.D.Newman,
in Proceedings of the 9th Marcel Grossmann Meeting on General Relativity, Rome 2000.
eds. V.G. Gurzadyan, R.T.Jantzen, R.Ruffini, World Scientific, pp.1769-1770 (2002).
Copyright (2002) World Scientific. This article may be downloaded for personal use only.
Any other use requires prior permission of the author and World Scientific.
The following article appeared in and may be found at [ ISBN 981-238-010-8].

2001 "Prospects for Terrestrial Equivalence Principle Tests with a Cryogenic Torsion Pendulum", PDF (130 kB)
Riley Newman, Class. Quantum Grav. 18, 2407 (2001).
Copyright (2001) Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only.
Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the Institute of Physics.
The following article appeared in and may be found at [ Class. Quantum Grav. 18, 2407 (2001)].

2000 "High precision measurement of torsion fiber internal friction at cryogenic temperatures", PDF (811 kB)
M.K.Bantel and R.D.Newman, Journal of Alloys and Compounds 310, 233 (2000).
Copyright (2000) Elsevier. This article may be downloaded for personal use only.
Any other use requires prior permission of the author and Elsevier.
The following article appeared in and may be found at [ Journal of Alloys and Compounds 310, 233 (2000)].

2000 "A Cryogenic Torsion Pendulum: Progress Report", PDF (570 kB)
M.K.Bantel and R.D.Newman, Class. Quantum Grav. 17, 2313 (2000).
Copyright (2000) Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only.
Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the Institute of Physics.
The following article appeared in and may be found at [ Class. Quantm Grav. 17, 2313 (2000)].

1999 "On determining G using a cryogenic torsion pendulum", PDF (313 kB)
R.D.Newman and M.K.Bantel, Meas. Sci. Technol. 10, 445 (1999).
Copyright (1999) Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only.
Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the Institute of Physics.
The following article appeared in and may be found at [ Meas. Sci. Technol. 10, 445 (1999)].

1996 "Future torsion balances for gravitation experiments: what are their limits?", PDF (411 kB)
R.D.Newman, M.Bantel, M.Beilby, N.Krishnan, E.Siragusa, P.E.Boynton, and A.Goodson,
in Proceedings of the 7th Marcel Grossmann Meeting on General Relativity,
Jantzen R., Mac Keiser G., and Ruffini R. eds., World Scientific, 1619 (1996a).
Copyright (1996) World Scientific. This article may be downloaded for personal use only.
Any other use requires prior permission of the author and World Scientific.
The following article appeared in and may be found at [ ISBN 9810220642].

1996 "Prospects for Gravitational Physics Experiments with Cryogenic Torsion Balances", PDF (237 kB)
R.D. Newman, M.K. Bantel and Z.R. Wang,
in Proceedings of the 31st Rencontre de Moriond, Les Arcs 1996:
"Dark Matter in Cosmology, Quantum Measurements, and Experimental Gravitation"
R. Ansari, Y. Giraud-Heraud, J.T. Thanh Van eds., Editions Frontieres, 409 (1996).
Copyright (1996) Editions Frontieres/EDP Sciences. This article may be downloaded for personal use only.
Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the Editions Frontieres/EDP Sciences.
The following article appeared in and may be inquired after at [ ISBN 2-86332-203-6].

1990 "Search for an intermediate-range composition-dependent force coupling to N-Z", PDF (1191 kB)
P.G.Nelson, D.M.Graham, and R.D.Newman, Phys. Rev. D42, 963 (1990).
Copyright (1990) American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only.
Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics.
The following article appeared in and may be found at [ Phys. Rev. D42, 963 (1990)].

1985 "Experimental tests of the gravitational inverse-square law for mass separations from 2 to 105 cm", PDF (1114 kB)
J.K.Hoskins, R.D.Newman, R.Spero, and J.Schultz, Phys. Rev. D32, 3084, (1985)
Copyright (1985) American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only.
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The following article appeared in and may be found at [ Phys. Rev. D32, 3084, (1985)].

Some Gravity Experiments Elsewhere