第５の力―ニュートンの万有引力の法則への疑問

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  • The fifth force-Doubt about Newton's gravitational law.
  • ダイ 5 ノ チカラ ニュートン ノ バンユウ インリョク ノ ホウソク エ

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It has long been believed that the Newtonian gravitational inverse-square law holds good in both laboratory and planetary dimensions. In recent years, however, doubt about the equivalence of laboratory and planetary values of the Newtonian constant has arisen. A hypothesis suggests that a Yukawa-type potential of the fifth force acts in short mass separations in addition to the conventional Newtonian gravitational potential. In that case the Newtonian constant can be expressed as a function exponentially decreasing with the mass separation.<BR>Many researchers have devoted themselves to finding the fifth force by accurate torsion-balance experiments or gravimetries down a deep mine shaft. Some of them concluded that the fifth force behaves as an attraction, while the others as a repulsion. Furthermore, from theoretical standpoint, the fifth force would depend on the chemical composition of materials. Some experimenters insisted that they detected possible evidence for the composition-dependency, but the others denied it. These facts may imply that the existence of the fifth force is now far from being considered a certainty.<BR>Why does such an uncertainty still remain ? One of the reasons is that the strength of the fifth force is supposed much weaker than that of the Newtonian force, so that it is very difficult to identify the fifth force even by highly accurate experiments. The other reason consists in gravity anomalies varying from place to place on the earth's surface. The importance of gravity anomalies should be minded in interpreting torsion-balance or gravity data before concluding that tha data indicates possible evidence for the fifth force.

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  • 地学雑誌

    地学雑誌 99 (3), 263-269, 1990

    公益社団法人 東京地学協会

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