Experimental Gravitation

Fulvio Ricci, Massimo Bassan

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN:
  9783030955953
• eBook ISBN:
  9783030955960
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• Subtopic: Databases

This book features a comprehensive review of experimental gravitation. It is a textbook based on the graduate courses on "Experimental Gravitation"  given by the authors at their respective universities in Rome:  Sapienza and Tor Vergata. A number of different research topics in the field are covered: from the torsion pendulum (still today the tool of choice for measuring small forces or torques) to the large interferometers developed to observe gravitational waves. Techniques that are still under development are also discussed, like the pulsar timing array and space-based detectors of the future. This book is written by experimentalists for experimentalists. While the background physics is summarized for less experienced readers, the emphasis is certainly on experimental verifications: the strategy, the apparatuses, the data analysis and the results of many cornerstone experiments are analyzed and discussed in depth. This textbook serves as a useful resource for both graduate students and professionals working in the increasingly vibrant field of experimental gravity.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Classical Gravity
• 2. The Torsion Pendulum
• 3. The Equivalence Principle
• 4. Principles of Metric Theories
• 5. Tests of Gravity at First Post-Newtonian Order
• 6. Gravity at the Second Post Newtonian Order
• 7. Gravitational Waves
• 8. The Resonant Detector
• 9. Interferometric Detectors of Gravitational Waves
• 10. Data Analysis
• 11. Space Detectors of GW
• 12. Pulsar as Gravitational Laboratory
• 13. The Sagnac Effect
• 14. GPS and Relativity
• Correction to: Experimental Gravitation
• Back Matter