Gravitation experiments at Stanford

Abstract

The experimental situation in post-Newtonian gravitation is briefly reviewed in order to reexamine the extent to which experiment supports or refutes general relativity. A description is given of the equivalence principle project, the gyroscope experiment, and the search for gravity waves. It is noted that even though some doubt has been cast on the value of the perihelion advance and the gravitational redshift as precise tests of general relativity in the past few years, many competing theories have been ruled out; in particular, the results from the Viking mission significantly reduce the credibility of the Brans-Dicke theory (Brans and Dicke, 1961). The dimensionless constant omega in this theory is now forced to exceed 50, while the value originally proposed was 6 (omega being infinity in general relativity). It is noted that the gyro experiment described is capable of putting much tighter limits on this parameter, and together with the other experiments in progress will help place gravitational theory on a firmer experimental footing.