Testing Gravity with Muonium

Recently a new technique for the production of muon ($\mu^+$) and muonium ($\mu^+e^-$) beams of unprecedented brightness has been proposed. As one consequence and using a highly stable Mach-Zehnder type interferometer, a measurement of the gravitational acceleration $\bar{g}$ of muonium atoms at the few percent level of precision appears feasible within 100 days of running time. The inertial mass of muonium is dominated by the mass of the positively charged - antimatter - muon. The measurement of $\bar{g}$ would be the first test of the gravitational interaction of antimatter, of a purely leptonic system, and of particles of the second generation.

K. Kirch · 2007