Testing general relativity with laser accelerated electron beams

Journal Article · Mon Jul 09 00:00:00 EDT 2012 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4736750· OSTI ID:22069060

Gergely, L A; Harko, T ^[1]

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1. Department of Theoretical Physics, University of Szeged, Szeged 6720, Tisza L. krt. 84, Hungary and Department of Experimental Physics, University of Szeged, 6720 Szeged, Dom ter 9 (Hungary)

Electron accelerations of the order of 10{sup 21} g obtained by laser fields open up the possibility of experimentally testing one of the cornerstones of general relativity, the weak equivalence principle, which states that the local effects of a gravitational field are indistinguishable from those sensed by a properly accelerated observer in flat space-time. We illustrate how this can be done by solving the Einstein equations in vacuum and integrating the geodesic equations of motion for a uniformly accelerated particle.

• OSTI ID: 22069060
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1462, Issue 1; Conference: LEI 2011: Conference on light at extreme intensities, Szeged (Hungary), 14-18 Nov 2011; Other Information: (c) 2012 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-243X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
ACCELERATION
COSMOLOGY
EINSTEIN FIELD EQUATIONS
ELECTRON BEAMS
ELECTRONS
EQUATIONS OF MOTION
EQUIVALENCE PRINCIPLE
GENERAL RELATIVITY THEORY
GEODESICS
GRAVITATION
GRAVITATIONAL FIELDS
LASER RADIATION
LASERS
LIGHT TRANSMISSION
PLASMA
RELATIVISTIC RANGE
SPACE-TIME
TESTING