Drop Experiment

Here I want to present detailed information on my first drop experiement at the free fall tower at ZARM in Bremen.

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5267/5620031752_63eab7b60e.jpg

This is inside the drop tower, the Alumina capsule, where the experimental setup is placed in.  Source

Time table drop experiment and its background history

Preliminaries

The foundation of drop experiments is born in the seventies of the 20th Century. As a theoretical particle physicist, I knew that the neutrinos are generated at nuclear decays and they are seemingly mass less particles. I knew also that the three elementary particles, the proton (P), the electron (e) and the positron (p) are coming out of the nucleons at the decay processes. I arose the question, could the neutrinos be bound state of electrons and positrons because they have the same masses and, could the electron and positron have elementary gravitational charges with opposite signs proportional the their masses? If it is, not only the elementary electric charges but also their elementary gravitational charges of the electron and the positron would have opposite sings. Further, as I imagined the neutrino as bound state, I assumed that both elementary charges have to be conserved. The generalization to proton is straight forward, as proton and electron have opposite electric charges they would also have opposite gravitational charges. The consequence of this idea is that the gravitational masses of a neural isotopes with the mass number A would have to be mg (A) = A (mP – me), with the elementary masse mP for proton and me for electron. Phenomenological we knew also that the inertial mass of isotopes mi(A) is less as the sum of the masses of their constituents. The mass defects of the isotopes are measured in mass spectrum experiments. With the measured inertial masses and with the calculated gravitational masses the relative mass defects Δ(A)

mg(A)/mi(A) = (1 +Δ(A))

can be calculated for all the isotopes. As the gravitational acceleration of a body a(body) depends on the relation mg(body)/mi(body),

a(body) = – a0 mg(body)/mi(body) = – a0 (1 + Δ(body)),

the idea of drop experiments is born with bodies of different isotope compositions. The relative mass defects depend on the mass number A and they differ in the range of 10-3. Therefore, drop experiments already with an accuracy of 10-5 would reach to test the idea of the existence of elementary gravitational charges. The assumed existence of gravitational charges is not in contradiction with particle physics which did not build in the gravitation in its fundaments until yet. But it is in contradiction with the generally accepted hypothesis of the weak equivalence principle which is one of the basics of the Standard Model of particle physics. The drop experiments would decide if the gravity can be considered as particle interaction caused by elementary gravitational charges. The outputs of drop experiment decide between the Atomistic Theory of Matter, ATOM, based on stable elementary particles and the energetic oriented Standard Physics too. The result of drop experiments according my thoughts would be some 10 cm path differences from a height of 100 m.

2003 With my conception of drop experiments I tried to get a launch in the drop tower of ZARM in Bremen from the gravitational physicists, without success. My further efforts were crowned with success by the DLR who supported my drop experiment at ZARM.

2004, on June 21. The drop experiment was performed with Li/Be/B/C/Al/Fe/Pb as test bodies in the drop capsule consisting mainly of Al. The drop capsule fell in vacuum, but in the capsule was normal air pressure. The GLP Protcol shows that the DLR confirmed that they were present during the drop experiment. The technical staff from ZARM rejected to sign the protocol. The video shows the result during the 4.7 seconds drop time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkNjvCmsWOU

or

Drop Experiment

Two days after the experiments the gravitational physicists of the University Bremen have started a world width e-mail action to the reviewers of physical journals not to publish the results of my drop experiment, because:

“In the experiment of Dr. Szasz, movements of the test bodies are due to unspecified initial velocities induced by transient disturbances which came in through relaxing the internal stress of the capsule. No violation of the Universality of Free Fall can be inferred from that experiment which does not meet the most basic scientific standards. We believe that a publication of these results will be detrimental for gravitational physics.
The scientists who wrote these lines were neither involved in the measurement nor have they had insight into registered experimental data. They did not have permits to evaluate the video. The question remains why publications of investigations about why research about basic principles of physics are not accepted and why a suitable verification of the oldest hypothesis of physics, the UFF, can not be performed and published? Is the equivalence of inertial and gravitational mass really confirmed?
The rejection of all my investigations since 2002 forced me to write this book.

My evaluation of the relative motions of the test bodies to the Al drop capsule gave the results as well of the inertial velocities as of the relative accelerations with an accuracy of 10-5. The relative accelerations of Li, C and Pb were greater than 10-4 compared with Al, thus the Universality of Free Fall was clearly violated by these three test bodies. I prompted the results of my evaluation to the DLR who promised me the support of the continuation of the drop experiments and I counted on launches at October of the year. As at that time I did not get any news from DLR, I asked for the launch terming. The DLR answered me the support of the continuation is stopped because in the time between they caught an unrequested technical expertise of ZARM with the main argument that no success is to be awaited from such drop experiments because of stochastic effects at falling.

Copy of the unrequested technical expertise of ZARM (pdf).

Bewertung_Exp_ZARM_23_07_2004-black-Preview

 

Meanwhile all the physical journals have rejected the publication of my result of the violation of the UFF. I asked directly by ZARM in offering own financing possibilities but I did not have any success to the continuation of the drop experiments. Thus, I asked a third company to get permission at ZARM, but they also met a rebuff. After that, I decided for a lawsuit at the Commercial Court at Mainz to get permission to the launches in the drop tower of ZARM (decision of the court).

2008 -2011 During this time a long and trouble private process has taken place against the public institution ZARM, who offered itself in advertisements to supply every body’s measurements at the drop tower. The resistance of ZARM was unbelievable hard and an agreement could not be reached. For instance ZARM proposed parabolic flights instead of drop experiments in its drop tower. At the end the Court asked for an expert opinion by the LMU Munich. The expert refused the continuation of the drop experiments with the argumentation that the Standard Physics KNOWS that the weak equivalence principle is valid. Furthermore, three private expert opinions, in which even the testing of this principle in to be made with drop experiments is proposed, were excluded by the Court and he decided not for the permission of further launches.

Copies of the expertise of LMU Munich (pdf)

Gutachten_LMU_06_01_2011-black-Previewand the full decision of the Court (pdf).

Urteil v. 15.07.2011-black-Preview

 

The result is that up to now worldwide no drop experiments is done from a height of ca. 100 m and with an accuracy of 10-5 testing the weak equivalence principle. Or with other words, no decision is made with such experiments between ATOM and energetic Standard Physics.

Yours Gyula Szász