Absolute measurement of thermal noise in a resonant short-range force experiment

H. Yan, E. A. Housworth, H. O. Meyer, G. Visser, E. Weisman, J. C. Long

Published 2014-02-02, updated 2014-10-23Version 2

Planar, double-torsional oscillators are especially suitable for short-range macroscopic force search experiments, since they can be operated at the limit of instrumental thermal noise. As a study of this limit, we report a measurement of the noise kinetic energy of a polycrystalline tungsten oscillator in thermal equilibrium at room temperature. The fluctuations of the oscillator in a high-Q torsional mode with a resonance frequency near 1 kHz are detected with capacitive transducers coupled to a sensitive differential amplifier. The electronic processing is calibrated by means of a known electrostatic force and input from a finite element model. The measured average kinetic energy is in agreement with the expected value of 1/2 kT.