David Bartlett

Professor Bartlett's main concern is tests of gravity and of electricity and magnetism. An example is the Kreutzer experiment, in which the gravitational force that body A exerts on body B is compared to the force that B exerts on A. While searching for a way to improve upon the laboratory test, Bartlett found an astronomical test that uses the moon to improve Kreuzer's limit by a factor of 10 6. He also has found that incomplete consideration of the local terrain was responsible for two positive reports of others finding the "fifth" force.

Further studies have shown that there are only three central potentials which allow a uniqueness theorem (of the kind familiar in electrostatics). One of these is being considered as an alternative to Newtonian Gravity.
 

Selected Publications

• "Equivalence of Active and Passive Gravitational Mass Using the Moon," D. Bartlett, D. Van Buren, Phys. Rev. Lett. 57, 21 (1986).
• "A Fool's Transformer-Interlocking Rogowski Coils," J. Theisen, B. Henry, D. Bartlett, Bull. Am. Phys. Soc. 40, 1026 (1995).
• "Possible Effect of the Local Terrain on the Australian Fifth-Force Measurement," D. Bartlett, W. Tew, Phys. Rev. D 40, 673 (1989).
• "What Potentials Permit a Uniqueness Theorem," D. Bartlett, Y. Su, Am. Jr. Phys. 62, 683 (1994).

Return to the Department of Physics Home Page