Demonstration of the minimal coupling of horizontal accelerations to rotations in a torsion balance suspended from three wires

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Ubhi, Amit Singh, Speake, Clive C., Chick, Emilia, Gettings, Conner
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Ubhi, Amit Singh
Speake, Clive C.
Chick, Emilia
Gettings, Conner
author_facet Ubhi, Amit Singh
Speake, Clive C.
Chick, Emilia
Gettings, Conner
contents The Cavendish torsion balance is the instrument of choice for measuring weak forces, such as gravity. Although torsion balances have extremely high sensitivity for measuring forces over ranges of a few cm and more, their dynamics make it difficult to extend this range to much less than fractions of mm. In particular forces such as the Casimir force are usually studied using atomic force microscopes. We present results of our studies of a simple torsion balance with a 3-wire suspension. This device should be able to maintain parallelism between flat plates of areas of a few $\sim\mathrm{cm^2}$ at separations of much less of 10's of $\mathrm{μm}$. In this paper we describe our experimental investigation into the coupling of ground tilt to the torsional rotation of the novel device. We show that, like the Cavendish torsion balance, the 3-wire torsion balance is highly insensitive to tilts. We also demonstrate that this tilt sensitivity is itself insensitive to shifts in the centre of mass position of the suspended mass. We discuss simple models of the 3-wire torsion balance that show that it is only the static wire lengths that determine the coupling of tilts and horizontal accelerations. We also discuss designs of torsion balances where sensitivity and noise rejection to tilts are optimised.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2411_10306
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Demonstration of the minimal coupling of horizontal accelerations to rotations in a torsion balance suspended from three wires
Ubhi, Amit Singh
Speake, Clive C.
Chick, Emilia
Gettings, Conner
Instrumentation and Detectors
The Cavendish torsion balance is the instrument of choice for measuring weak forces, such as gravity. Although torsion balances have extremely high sensitivity for measuring forces over ranges of a few cm and more, their dynamics make it difficult to extend this range to much less than fractions of mm. In particular forces such as the Casimir force are usually studied using atomic force microscopes. We present results of our studies of a simple torsion balance with a 3-wire suspension. This device should be able to maintain parallelism between flat plates of areas of a few $\sim\mathrm{cm^2}$ at separations of much less of 10's of $\mathrm{μm}$. In this paper we describe our experimental investigation into the coupling of ground tilt to the torsional rotation of the novel device. We show that, like the Cavendish torsion balance, the 3-wire torsion balance is highly insensitive to tilts. We also demonstrate that this tilt sensitivity is itself insensitive to shifts in the centre of mass position of the suspended mass. We discuss simple models of the 3-wire torsion balance that show that it is only the static wire lengths that determine the coupling of tilts and horizontal accelerations. We also discuss designs of torsion balances where sensitivity and noise rejection to tilts are optimised.
title Demonstration of the minimal coupling of horizontal accelerations to rotations in a torsion balance suspended from three wires
topic Instrumentation and Detectors
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.10306