Berlin 2014 – scientific programme

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GR: Fachverband Gravitation und Relativitätstheorie

GR 21: Experimental Gravitation III

GR 21.1: Talk

Thursday, March 20, 2014, 14:45–15:05, SPA SR220

Gravity resonance spectroscopy constrains dark energy and dark matter scenarios — •Tobias Jenke¹, Gunther Cronenberg¹, Hanno Filter¹, Peter Geltenbort², Andrei N. Ivanov¹, Thorsten Lauer³, Tobias Lins¹, Heiko Saul¹, Ulrich Schmidt⁴, and Hartmut Abele¹ — ¹Atominstitut, TU Wien, Wien, Austria — ²Institut Laue-Langevin, Grenoble, France — ³FRM II, TU München, Garching — ⁴Physikalisches Institut, Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg

Modern astronomical observations clearly point to the existence of dark energy and dark matter. Their true nature and content remain a mystery however. The two most obvious candidates for dark energy are either Einstein’s cosmological constant or quintessence theories. In particular the idea that chameleon scenarios, a realization of quintessence with a coupling to matter, may exist, is attracting high interest of a growing community.

Here, we present results from the qBounce measurements using ultracold neutrons. Our observation technique is based on Rabi-spectroscopy of bound quantum states in the gravity potential of the earth, devoid of electromagnetic perturbations. As yet undiscovered particles of dark matter or dark energy would introduce a measurable energy shift, the result delivers severe restrictions on any gravity-like interaction. The present accuracy indicates that gravity is understood at the level of Δ E = 10⁻¹⁴ eV. Hence, we can present experimental limits for dark-energy chameleons fields and the pseudo-scalar interaction of an axion, a prominent dark matter particle.