Gravitational mass of positron from LEP synchrotron losses

Journal Article · Wed Jul 27 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Scientific Reports

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/srep30461· OSTI ID:1326647

Kalaydzhyan, Tigran ^[1]

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1. Univ. of Illinois, Chicago, IL (United States); Stony Brook Univ., Stony Brook, NY (United States)

General relativity(GR) is the current description of gravity in modern physics. One of the cornerstones of GR, as well as Newton’s theory of gravity, is the weak equivalence principle (WEP), stating that the trajectory of a freely falling test body is independent of its internal structure and composition. WEP is known to be valid for the normal matter with a high precision. However, due to the rarity of antimatter and weakness of the gravitational forces, the WEP has never been confirmed for antimatter. The current direct bounds on the ratio between the gravitational and inertial masses of the antihydrogen do not rule out a repulsive nature for the antimatter gravity. Here we establish an indirect bound of 0.13% on the difference between the gravitational and inertial masses of the positron (antielectron) from the analysis of synchrotron losses at the Large Electron-Positron collider (LEP). As a result, this serves as a confirmation of the conventional gravitational properties of antimatter without common assumptions such as, e.g., coupling of gravity to virtual particles, dynamics of distant astrophysical sources and the nature of absolute gravitational potentials.

• Research Organization: State Univ. of New York (SUNY), Albany, NY (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• Grant/Contract Number: FG02-88ER40388
• OSTI ID: 1326647
• Journal Information: Scientific Reports, Vol. 6; ISSN 2045-2322
• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

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