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Impact of high precision gravimetry in the context of a future new SI

Article  in  International Journal of Modern Physics Conference Series · January 2014

DOI: 10.1142/S2010194514602701

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International Journal of Modern Physics: Conference Series
Vol. 1, No. 1 (2010) 1–5
 World Scientific Publishing Company
DOI: 10.1142/insert DOI here

IMPACT OF HIGH PRECISION GRAVIMETRY IN

THE CONTEXT OF A FUTURE NEW SI

HENRI BAUMANN*
Mass and related Quantities, Federal Institute of Metrology METAS, Lindenweg 50
Bern-Wabern, Bern 3003, Switzerland
henri.baumann@metas.ch

ALI L. EICHENBERGER
Electricity, Federal Institute of Metrology METAS, Lindenweg 50
Bern-Wabern, Bern 3003, Switzerland
ali.eichenberger@metas.ch

Received 18 December 2013

Revised 21 January 2014

In the early eighties, the development of ballistic absolute gravimeters based on laser
interferometer opened the doors to new research areas in various scientific domains such as
geodesy, geophysics or metrology. After a brief overview of the most used technique for gravity
measurements, the implication of gravity in the context of an improved SI, especially for a new
definition of the mass unit kg, will be presented.

Keywords: Gravity, Watt balance, Planck constant, International System of Units, SI

1. Introduction
The gravity force is a crucial physical quantity in many scientific areas. Since the first
experimental measurement of Galileo Galilei in 1604, the measurement techniques have
been continually improved. In the early eighties a technological breakthrough has been
achieved with the development of ballistic absolute gravimeters using laser
interferometer for the measurement of the position of a free falling body in the gravity
field g1. With these new types of absolute gravimeters, it was then possible to measure
gravity at the level of some µGal (Gal = 1 cm/s2) that opened the doors to new research
topics in various scientific domains such as earth science, geodesy, geophysics and
metrology.

*
Presented by H. Baumann

1
2 H. Baumann and A. L. Eichenberger

2. Absolute Gravimeters
Till the middle of the 20th century, the technics used for the measurement of gravity were
based on simple or reversible pendulums. Nowadays, even if some new types of absolute
gravimeters are under development in different laboratories2, almost all absolute
gravimeters used in earth science or in metrology are ballistic instruments. These
instruments measure the position of a free falling body as a function of time to determine
gravity. The working principle of this type of gravimeters is illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2.

 2  2
Position t
Falling prism

Incident beam Reflected beam

t
Splitter
Photo-
Detector

LASER

Reflected
reference beam
Reference
beam Reference
Prism
Zeit t
t1 t2 t3

Fig. 1: Overview of the working principle of modern ballistic absolute gravimeters. The position of a free
falling optical prism is measured with a laser interferometer.

The position of a free falling body in the local gravity field is measured with an
interferometer. The light produced by a helium-neon laser is injected into the
interferometer using an optical fiber. The incoming beam is split into two beams, the
measuring beam and the reference beam. The measuring beam is reflected by a free
falling optical corner cube, while the reference beam is reflected by the fixed reference
corner cube. Both beams are then recombined to generate interferences. The optical
signal is then directed to a photodiode to be converted to an electrical signal. By timing
and counting the occurrence of the interference fringes (Fig. 2), the position of the falling
prism can be determined as a function of time. By knowing the vertical gradient, the
equation of motion, Eq. (1), is used to evaluate the gravity value go by a least square fit.

1 1 1
𝑥𝑖 = 𝑥𝑜 + 𝑣𝑜 + 𝑔𝑜 𝑡̃𝑖2 + 𝛾𝑣𝑜 𝑡̃𝑖3 + 𝛾𝑔𝑜 𝑡̃𝑖4 (1)
2 6 24
 High Precision Gravimetry and Future New SI
where

𝑥 −𝑥
𝑡̃𝑖 = 𝑡𝑖 − 𝑖 𝑜 (2)
𝑐

and where go, vo and xo are the initial acceleration, velocity and position, respectively.
The factor γ is the vertical gravity gradient and c is the speed of light.

Fig. 2: Interference pattern measured by the photodiode. By timing and counting the fringes, the position of the
free falling body as a function of time can be determined.

Almost all ballistic gravimeters are free-fall gravimeters that measure only the falling
trajectory of a dropped corner cube3. Nevertheless, there are also other approaches that
are adopting a symmetric method4. Here, the corner cube is thrown and the complete rise
and fall of the trajectory is measured. However, both types of instruments are composed
of three main parts, the dropping chamber, the interferometer and the vibration isolation
system. Fig. 3 shows the main components of a free-fall absolute gravimeter5. The upper
part of the instrument (the dropping chamber) is a vacuum chamber that contains the
mobile arm of the interferometer. In this vacuum chamber, a cart (the drag free chamber)
lifts the optical corner cube to the top. After a stabilization time, the cart is accelerated to
put the corner cube in free-fall conditions. To minimize the drag forces from the residual
gas molecules, the drag free chamber follows the prism during its drop and gently catches
it at its end.
A major issue of gravimetry is coming from environmental perturbations. Different
techniques have been developed to overcome this problem. One possibility is to measure
the environmental noise and to introduce it as observable in the system of equation6.
Another approach would be to place the reference corner cube on a kind of mechanical
4 H. Baumann and A. L. Eichenberger

filter. This method is illustrated in Fig. 3 by the superspring7. This system mimics the
behavior of a spring of about 1 km length to reach a free period of approximately 60 s.

Fig. 3: General overview of a free-fall gravimeter

3. Implication of Gravity in the New Definition of the Mass Unit, the Kilogram
Today, the kilogram is the last unit of the International System of Units (SI) still based on
an artifact, the international prototype of the kilogram (IPK), kept at the Bureau
International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM). The IPK prototype, machined in 1878, is a
cylinder of a platinum-iridium alloy (Pt 90% - Ir 10% in mass) the height of which (39
mm) is equal to its diameter. Each country signatory of the meter convention received a
copy of the IPK to materialize its national mass unit. To survey the evolution of the
different copies relative to IPK, three comparisons have been made since 1880. The
results of these comparisons have shown a relative drift of about 0.5 µg/yr between the
copies and the IPK. Because the instability of the mass unit affects also other units of the
SI (such as the ampere or the mole), there is now a general consensus that the time for a
redefinition of the kilogram has come. Up to now, one of the most successful approaches
has been the watt balance proposed by B. Kibble8 in 1975. The principle of this
experiment is to link the mass unit to the Planck constant h by a comparison between the
mechanical power and the electrical power.
In 1997, the development of a watt balance started at the Federal Institute of
Metrology (METAS). After more than ten years of continuous improvements, systematic
characterization and thorough investigations, a final result for the Planck constant has
 High Precision Gravimetry and Future New SI
been published9. With this result, the apparatus had reached its limits. Additional
improvements needed to be implemented to reduce the uncertainty significantly, became
incompatible with the conception of the experimental setup. For this reason, it has been
decided to start the development of a new watt balance at METAS, in strong
collaboration with industrial partners (METTLER TOLEDO, Maxon), universities
(Laboratoire de Systèmes Robotiques, LSRO, from the Ecole Polytechnique de
Lausanne, EPFL) and research institutes (Centre Européen de Recherche Nucléaire,
CERN)10.

4. The Watt Balance Principle

The concept of the watt balance has been intensely discussed in other places11. The
experiment is performed in two steps with the same experimental setup: the static or
weighing mode, and the dynamic or induction mode (Fig. 4).

Fig. 4: Principle of the watt balance experiment. Static mode (left): The electromagnetic force acting on the
current carrying coil is balanced against the weight of the test mass. Dynamic mode (right): The coil is moved
in the vertical direction through the magnetic field and the induced voltage is measured.

In the static mode the force generated by a mass m, placed in the local gravity field g, is
balanced by the vertical component of the electromagnetic force produced by a current I
flowing through a coil immersed in a magnetic field B. The electromagnetic force can be
expressed as

⃗⃗⃗⃗ × 𝐵
𝐹⃗ = 𝐼 ∙ ∮ 𝑑𝑙 ⃗⃗ , (3)

where l is the conductor length of the coil. In the dynamic mode, the coil is moved
vertically at a velocity v through the magnetic field B. This motion induces a voltage U
across the coil that can be expressed as

⃗⃗⃗⃗ × 𝐵
𝑈 = − ∮(𝑑𝑙 ⃗⃗) ∙ 𝑣⃗. (4)
6 H. Baumann and A. L. Eichenberger

If the mechanical dimensions of the coil and the magnetic field are strictly identical in
both modes, and under the hypothesis that the coil passes through its weighing position
during the velocity mode, the combination of both modes leads to the expression

𝑈 ∙ 𝐼 = 𝑚 ∙ 𝑔 ∙ 𝑣. (5)

The experiment thus allows a comparison between electrical and mechanical power.
Using the expressions of the Josephson, Eq. (6), and quantum Hall effects, Equ. (7),

ℎ
𝑈 = 𝐶𝐽 ∙ 𝑈𝐽 = 𝐶𝐽 ∙ 𝑛𝐽 ∙ ∙ 𝑓𝐽 , (6)
2𝑒

ℎ
𝑅 = 𝐶𝐻 ∙ 𝑅𝐻 = 𝐶𝐻 ∙ , (7)
𝑛𝐻 ∙𝑒 2

Eq. (5) can be rewritten as

𝑓𝑗 ∙𝑓𝑗′
𝑚=𝐶∙ ∙ℎ , (8)
𝑔∙𝑣

where CJ, CH and C are calibration constants, fj and fj’ are the Josephson frequencies used
during the static and the dynamic phases, nJ and nH are the step number, e the elementary
charge and h Planck's constant. The watt balance experiment allows therefore relating
the unit of mass to the meter, the second and the Planck constant.

From all the quantities that have to be measured in equation (5), only the local value of
the Earth gravity field g cannot be accessed in a direct way. For a new definition of the
kilogram, the CCM (Consultative Committee for Mass and Related Quantities) requests
that the watt balances should be in agreement with a relative standard uncertainty of 2 ×
10−8. This implies a contribution associated with g of the order of some μGal. That is why
an appropriate method for the evaluation of g at the position of the test mass has been
developed. The method, described in Ref. 12 monitors the time dependent variations of
the Earth gravity field by using an absolute gravimeter and by establishing a three-
dimensional model of the gravity field of the watt balance laboratory. The 3D model
served to determine the difference in g between the absolute instrument and the point of
measurement of the watt balance.
 High Precision Gravimetry and Future New SI
5. Conclusion
The knowledge of gravity at a high level of precision plays an important role in various
scientific domains. Especially in metrology, the development of instruments able to
determine g at the level of 10−9 opened the door to a possible new definition of the mass
unit by relaying it to the Planck constant.

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217 (1999).
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Operating an atom interferometer beyond its linear range, Metrologia, 46, 87 (2009).
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gravimeter [Ph.D. thesis], INRIM, Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica, 2005.
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