Analyzing data in precise gravitational measurements at small scale as 50μm

There are ways to experimentally test for theories that attempt to unify the Standard Model with General Relativity, albeit largely untestable. The inverse square law (ISL) proposed by Newton suggests that the force of gravity acting between any two point objects is inversely proportional to the square of the separation distance between the objects. There are theoretical speculations that suggest fundamentally new physics could appear at length scales between 1mm and 100μm. Furthermore, the weak equivalence principle (WEP) states that the gravitational force experienced by an object is independent of its composition. The Gravitational Research Lab at Cal Poly Humboldt performs precise gravitational tests on a scale as small as 50μm. The experiment uses a torsion pendulum that is symmetrically composed of two materials of equal mass placed near an attractor mass. The gravitational force measured between these two objects tests the ISL along with the WEP. Lab members recently updated hardware and characterized systematic effects to achieve more precise measurements. There is an intricate process of gathering the data within the system, and transforming it to values that will be stored, organized, and analyzed in Python 3.9. This talk will go over the process of gathering data and how it is analyzed. The lab is currently converting the data analysis script from Python 2 to Python 3.9. Thus, the talk will also go over the updates being implemented to the script, along with the environmental monitoring system and various hardware updates that the team is in the process of implementing.