The MICROSCOPE satellite ended its mission in October 2018. Aiming at testing the Equivalence Principle (EP), the funding hypothesis of the General Relativity with unprecedented precision, a first publication in 2017 showed no evidence of a violation at 10−14 level. Since then; 3 years of analysis made it possible to improve the accuracy by one...
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September 18, 2022 (v1)Conference paperUploaded on: February 22, 2023
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March 18, 2023 (v1)Conference paper
The MICROSCOPE mission tested the Weak Equivalence Principle (WEP) with an unprecedented precision of order 10−15, two orders of magnitude better than the previous best lab experiments. While the WEP, the cornerstone of General Relativity (GR), does not sway, the decade-long problems faced by fundamental physics stay still: how can we unify GR...
Uploaded on: June 9, 2023 -
January 30, 2022 (v1)Conference paper
Launched in April 2016, the MICROSCOPE satellite ended its operations in October 2018 with the deployment of its deorbitation wings. MICROSCOPE aims at testing the equivalence principle (EP), the funding hypothesis of general relativity established by Einstein in 1915. In December 2017, first results based on only 7% of the total data improved...
Uploaded on: December 4, 2022 -
2018 (v1)Journal article
The existence of a light or massive scalar field with a coupling to matter weaker than gravitational strength is a possible source of violation of the weak equivalence principle. We use the first results on the Eötvös parameter by the MICROSCOPE experiment to set new constraints on such scalar fields. For a massive scalar field of mass smaller...
Uploaded on: December 4, 2022 -
2022 (v1)Journal article
This paper introduces the current special issue focussed on the MICROSCOPE mission. This mission is the first experimental test in space of the weak equivalence principle (WEP) using man-made test-masses—as opposed to astronomical tests—with the goal to reach a precision two orders of magnitude better than ground-based experiments. Selected in...
Uploaded on: December 4, 2022 -
2021 (v1)Journal article
This article is dedicated to the use the MICROSCOPE mission's data to test chameleon theory of gravity. We take advantage of the technical sessions aimed to characterize the electrostatic stiffness of MICROSCOPE's instrument intrinsic to its capacitive measurement system. Any discrepancy between the expected and measured stiffness may result...
Uploaded on: December 4, 2022 -
March 15, 2021 (v1)Journal article
This article is dedicated to the use the MICROSCOPE mission's data to test chameleon theory of gravity. We take advantage of the technical sessions aimed to characterize the electrostatic stiffness of MICROSCOPE's instrument intrinsic to its capacitive measurement system. Any discrepancy between the expected and measured stiffness may result...
Uploaded on: December 3, 2022 -
2022 (v1)Journal article
The MICROSCOPE experiment was designed to test the weak equivalence principle in space, by comparing the low-frequency dynamics of cylindrical 'free-falling' test masses controlled by electrostatic forces. We use data taken during technical sessions aimed at estimating the electrostatic stiffness of MICROSCOPE's sensors to constrain a...
Uploaded on: December 4, 2022 -
2022 (v1)Journal article
MICROSCOPE's space test of the weak equivalence principle (WEP) is based on the minute measurement of the difference of accelerations experienced by two test masses as they orbit the Earth. A detection of a violation of the WEP would appear at a well-known frequency f$_{EP}$ depending on the satellite's orbital and spinning frequencies....
Uploaded on: December 4, 2022 -
2022 (v1)Journal article
After performing highly sensitive acceleration measurements during two years of drag-free flight around the Earth, MICROSCOPE provided the best constraint on the weak equivalence principle (WEP) to date. Beside being a technological challenge, this experiment required a specialised data analysis pipeline to look for a potential small signal...
Uploaded on: December 4, 2022 -
December 2019 (v1)Journal article
We use data from the T-SAGE instrument on board the MICROSCOPE space mission to search for Lorentz violation in matter-gravity couplings as described by the Lorentz violating Standard Model Extension (SME) coefficients. One of the phenomenological consequences of a non-zero value of those coefficients is that test bodies of different...
Uploaded on: December 3, 2022 -
2022 (v1)Journal article
This paper focuses on the description of the design and performance of the MICROSCOPE satellite and its drag-free and attitude control system. The satellite is derived from CNES' Myriade platform family, albeit with significant upgrades dictated by the unprecedented MICROSCOPE's mission requirements. The 300 kg drag-free microsatellite has...
Uploaded on: December 4, 2022 -
2022 (v1)Journal article
The MICROSCOPE mission aimed to test the weak equivalence principle (WEP) to a precision of 10$^{−15}$. The WEP states that two bodies fall at the same rate on a gravitational field independently of their mass or composition. In MICROSCOPE, two masses of different compositions (titanium and platinum alloys) are placed on a quasi-circular...
Uploaded on: December 4, 2022