Modelling a suspension for an experiment to measure the speed of gravity in short distances

Abstract

Abstract An experiment to measure the speed of gravitational signals in short distances has been developed with the intention to study its behavior when a medium different from air is allocated between the emitter and the detection and check if the speed of the interaction changes. The experiment is composed of three sapphire bars that vibrates, and as they vibrate its creates a tidal gravitational wave signal that interacts with another sapphire bar, this bar is monitored by a very pure microwave signal and its amplitude and phase are measured and the gravity speed is calculated, all system is cooled to a temperature of 4.2 K to increase sensitivity and kept in high vacuum. The sapphire bar needs to be suspended to avoid seismic noise and other interference. This work models the sapphire bar with the suspension, a wire that suspends the bar by its center and has its performance calculated in a finite element modelling. The final result shows that the mechanical behavior of the sapphire bar is not affected by the suspension.