Weight Mass Anomaly

There is a great need for a precise experimental determination of the weight to mass ration of protons or electrons. Since the ratio for a proton plus an electron is known already, the determination of the ration for either particle is sufficient. The dificulty of a direct determination of the gravitational deflection of a charged particle in an experiment similar to the neutron or neutral atom experiment is due to electrical forces being much greater than gravitational forces. For example, one electron five meters away from a second electron exerts as much force on that second electron as the gravitational field does. Thus stray electrons or ions which are always present on the walls of an apparatus can exert sufficient force to completely mask the gravitational force. Even if the surface charges are neglected, image charges of the electrom beam itself and self repulsion in the beam may obscure the gravitational deflection. An additional problem is the Earth's magnetic field. Electrons of even a few volts energy will feel a force due to the Earth's field a thousand billion times larger than the gravitational deflection. This last problem is avoided in a static measurement of the ratio such as a weighing of ionized matter. However this last method has the additional difficulty of requiring a high proportion of ionized to unionized matter in the sample being weighed. Of course all these problems can be resolved to some extent, but it is questionable if an experiment of either of the above types can be designed in which all the adverse effects can simultaneously be sufficiently minimized. Probably a completely new type of experiment will have to be devised to measure the weight to mass ratio of the proton or electron. Such a measurement may detect a deviation from the law of constant weight to mass ratio. If such an anomaly can be shown to exist there is the possibility of finding a material which would be acted upon in an unusual manner in a gravitational field.

Martin L. Perl.