Experiment to detect dark energy forces using atom interferometry

Understand

The accelerated expansion of the universe motivates a wide class of scalar field theories that modify gravity on large scales.

• In regions where the weak field limit of General Relativity has been confirmed by experiment, such theories need a screening mechanism to suppress the new force.
• We have measured the acceleration of an atom toward a macroscopic test mass inside a high vacuum chamber, where the new force is unscreened in some theories.
• Our measurement, made using atom interferometry, shows that the attraction between atoms and the test mass does not differ appreciably from Newtonian gravity.