In one minute

Decca, López, Fischbach, Klimchitskaya, Krause and Mostepanenko use the Casimir effect, a direct manifestation of the quantum vacuum, to test for new physics. The effect reaches from particle physics, gravitation and cosmology to condensed matter and nanotechnology, and it constrains physics beyond the standard model. A micromechanical torsion oscillator measures the Casimir pressure between two gold-coated plates. They sharply reduce random errors and, for the first time, compare with theory using measured electronic parameters of gold coatings made under the same conditions. The data conclusively exclude predictions of large thermal effects below 1 µm. They also tighten limits on Yukawa-type corrections to Newtonian gravity over ranges from 29.5 nm to 86 nm.

Tests of new physics from precise measurements of the Casimir pressure between two gold-coated plates