Upper limit to anisotropy of inertial mass from nuclear resonance

Abstract

It has been pointed out by Bondi (1962) and Cocooni and Salpeter (1958) that if inertial mass is taken to arise from gravitational interaction with distant matter one would expect the concentration of matter near the centre of our town Galaxy to cause some anisotropy of inertia at the earth. The anisotropy might be as large as one part in 10^7; and Cocconi and Saltepeter suggested that it could be detected from the shifts in atomic energy levels which might result in a single-electron atom in a magnetic field parallel to the direction of the centre of the Galaxy they find that the energy of a P_(a/2) state with magnetic quantum number m_i = ± 1/2 would be altered by an amount T.ΔM/5M, where T is the mean kinetic energy of the electron and ΔM/M is the fractional difference between the inertial masses of a body (the electron) for accelerations parallel to the direction of the centre of the Galaxy, and perpendicular to it. A p_(3/2) state foe which m_i = ± 3/2 would show an energy shift of equal magnitude in the opposite direction. If the magnetic field is perpendicular to the direction of the centre of the Galaxy then both these energy shifts would be reversed.

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