Search for Fractional Charges in Water

Joyce, D.; Abrams, Peter C.; Bland, R.W.; Johnson, Rucker C.; Lindgren, M.; Savage, Maureen H.; Scholz, Marion H.; Young, B. A.; Hodges, C.

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.51.731

Cited by 36 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Our development of an automated Millikan oil drop method to search for free fractional-charge particles began in 1994 [20] with some of the inspiration for a modern Millikan oil drop apparatus coming form the earlier work of Bland and his colleagues at San Francisco State University [21,22].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Search for Fractional-Charge Particles in Meteoritic Material

Kim

Lee

et al. 2007

Phys. Rev. Lett.

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We have used an automated Millikan oil drop method to search for free fractional-charge particles in a sample containing in total 3.9 mg of pulverized Allende meteorite suspended in 259 mg of mineral oil. The average diameter of the drops was 26:5 m with the charge on about 42 500 000 drops being measured. This search was motivated by the speculation that isolatable, fractional-charge particles produced in the early Universe and present in our Solar System are more likely to be accumulated in asteroids than on Earth's surface. No evidence for fractional-charge particles was found. With 95% confidence, the concentration of particles with fractional-charge more than 0.25 e (e being the magnitude of the electron charge) from the nearest integer charge is less than 1:3 10 ÿ21 particles per nucleon in the meteoritic material and less than 1:9 10 ÿ23 particles per nucleon in the mineral oil.

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confidence: 99%

Search for Fractional-Charge Particles in Meteoritic Material

Kim

Lee

et al. 2007

Phys. Rev. Lett.

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“…1, was developed from the technique used in fractional charge searches at San Francisco State University, [8][9][10][11] which in turn were modern versions of the original work of Millikan. 12-14 Two flat, horizontal, circular, metal plates about 1 cm apart have small diameter holes along their central axis.…”

Section: B Automated Millikan Liquid Drop Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The search for elementary particles with fractional electric charge and the philosophy of speculative experiments

Перл

Lee

1997

American Journal of Physics

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All known elementary particles that can be isolated as individual particles have an electric charge that is equal in magnitude to the electron's charge, qϭ1.6ϫ10 Ϫ19 C, or is zero. This includes the muon and tau charged leptons, the neutrinos, the photon, the nucleons, and the mesons. There have been many searches without confirmed success for isolated particles with fractional electric charge such as Ϯq/3, or Ϯq/2, or Ϯ3q/2. The theory of the physics of elementary particles does not require the existence of such particles. In particular, current theory holds that quarks, whose charge is Ϯ(1/3)q or Ϯ2/3q, cannot be isolated. Despite past failures and current theory, we have been engaged for the past few years in a new search for isolated elementary particles with fractional electric charge. In the course of this paper we discuss models for fractional charge particles, summarize previous searches, and describe our experimental method; and because this is speculative research we will also present our thoughts on speculative experiments. © 1997 American Association of Physics Teachers.

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“…Current work is being done at SLAC on measuring the charges of light mineral oil containing a suspension of powdered carbonaceous chondrite meteorite. The research group at San Francisco State University has successfully used mercury and sea water as microdrop fluids for their automated Millikan apparatus [11,18,19]. Different automated variations of the standard Millikan apparatus have been constructed at SLAC for the precise high-mass throughput measurement of fluid microdrops for a sequence of experiments attempting to detect fractionally charged free particles.…”

Section: Fluidsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Generalizing equation (19) for the error due to Brownian motion on charge for a Millikan apparatus with horizontal electric field, one can obtain an expression from which one can derive the effect of the magnitude of the charge on the fluid drop on the accuracy to which this charge can be measured:…”

Section: Charge Magnitudementioning

confidence: 99%

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Automated electric charge measurements of fluid microdrops using the Millikan method

Lee¹,

Halyo²,

Lee³

et al. 2004

Metrologia

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Automated measurements of the electric charge of fluid microdrops precise to up to 0.016 of an electron charge have been made using machine-vision systems to observe the motion of fluid microdrops in air under the influence of an oscillating electric field. The fluid drop diameters have ranged from 7 to 25 µm with smaller diameter drops being measured to higher precision. The experimental runs performed for the purpose of attempting to find isolated fractionally electrically charged particles have measured the charges of tens of millions of fluid microdrops using piezoelectrically driven drop-on-demand inkjet-like droplet ejectors as fluid drop sources.

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Search for Fractional Charges in Water

Cited by 36 publications

References 8 publications

Search for Fractional-Charge Particles in Meteoritic Material

Search for Fractional-Charge Particles in Meteoritic Material

The search for elementary particles with fractional electric charge and the philosophy of speculative experiments

Automated electric charge measurements of fluid microdrops using the Millikan method

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