| The inverse square law of gravitation is known to agree with astronomical data to very high accuracy, but recent theoretical and experimental work indicate that the inverse square law may be violated at distances less than 1000 km. Such a violation would signal the existence of a new force.; In order to check the inverse square law we are preparing to search for a non-newtonian force in a cylindrical shell. The cylindrical shell has the property that the newtonian effects nearly cancel, so that we are doing a nearly null experiment.; We have developed a superconducting gradiometer to measure the gravitational force gradients at the center of this cylindrical shell. By measuring both the vertical and horizontal gradients we can eliminate effects due to imperfections in the cylinder. This thesis describes the instrument and its performance as well as calculations of the sensitivity of the inverse square law test. |
