- Physical Review Journals
All JournalsPhysics Magazine

Physical Review D

Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Letter
  • Open Access

Magnetic levitation as a new probe of non-Newtonian gravity

Dorian W. P. Amaral1,*, Tim M. Fuchs2, Hendrik Ulbricht2, and Christopher D. Tunnell1

  • *Contact author: damaral@ifae.es
PDF

Phys. Rev. D 113, L021101 – Published 27 January, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/pqrs-bpgj

Abstract

We present the magnetic oscillatory resonator for rare-interaction studies (MORRIS) and propose the first tabletop search for non-Newtonian gravity due to a Yukawa-like fifth force using a magnetically levitated particle. Our experiment comprises a levitated submillimeter magnet in a superconducting trap that is driven by a time-periodic source. Featuring short-, medium-, and long-term stages, MORRIS will admit increasing sensitivities to the force coupling strength α, optimally probing screening lengths of λ∼1  mm. Our short-term setup provides a proof-of-principle study, with our medium- and long-term stages respectively constraining α≲10−4 and α≲10−5, leading over existing bounds. Our projections are readily recastable to concrete models predicting the existence of fifth forces, and our statistical analysis is generally applicable to well-characterized sinusoidal driving forces. By leveraging ultralow dissipation and heavy test masses, MORRIS opens a new window onto tests of small-scale gravity and searches for physics beyond the Standard Model.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

Supplemental Material

References (44)

  1. R. Penrose, On the gravitization of quantum mechanics 1: Quantum state reduction, Found. Phys. 44, 557 (2014).
  2. D. M. Greenberger, The disconnect between quantum mechanics and gravity, in Quantum Physics and the Nature of Reality: A Conference in Honour of John Polkinghorne’s 80th Birthday (2010), .
  3. E. G. Adelberger, B. R. Heckel, and A. E. Nelson, Tests of the gravitational inverse square law, Annu. Rev. Nucl. Part. Sci. 53, 77 (2003).
  4. C. M. Will, The confrontation between general relativity and experiment, Living Rev. Relativity 9, 3 (2006).
  5. S. Hossenfelder, Experimental search for quantum gravity, in Classical Quantum Gravity: Theory, Analysis and Applications (2010), .
  6. E. G. Adelberger, J. H. Gundlach, B. R. Heckel, S. Hoedl, and S. Schlamminger, Torsion balance experiments: A low-energy frontier of particle physics, Prog. Part. Nucl. Phys. 62, 102 (2009).
  7. N. Arkani-Hamed, S. Dimopoulos, and G. R. Dvali, The hierarchy problem and new dimensions at a millimeter, Phys. Lett. B 429, 263 (1998).
  8. S. Dimopoulos and G. F. Giudice, Macroscopic forces from supersymmetry, Phys. Lett. B 379, 105 (1996).
  9. S. Dimopoulos and A. A. Geraci, Probing submicron forces by interferometry of Bose-Einstein condensed atoms, Phys. Rev. D 68, 124021 (2003).
  10. E. Fischbach and C. Talmadge, Six years of the fifth force, Nature (London) 356, 207 (1992).
  11. A. A. Geraci, S. B. Papp, and J. Kitching, Short-range force detection using optically-cooled levitated microspheres, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 101101 (2010).
  12. D. J. Kapner, T. S. Cook, E. G. Adelberger, J. H. Gundlach, B. R. Heckel, C. D. Hoyle, and H. E. Swanson, Tests of the gravitational inverse-square law below the dark-energy length scale, Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 021101 (2007).
  13. S.-Q. Yang, B.-F. Zhan, Q.-L. Wang, C.-G. Shao, L.-C. Tu, W.-H. Tan, and J. Luo, Test of the gravitational inverse square law at millimeter ranges, Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 081101 (2012).
  14. C. P. Blakemore, A. Fieguth, A. Kawasaki, N. Priel, D. Martin, A. D. Rider, Q. Wang, and G. Gratta, Search for non-Newtonian interactions at micrometer scale with a levitated test mass, Phys. Rev. D 104, L061101 (2021).
  15. G. Venugopalan et al., Search for new interactions at the micron scale with a vector force sensor, arXiv:2412.13167.
  16. J. Prat-Camps, C. Teo, C. C. Rusconi, W. Wieczorek, and O. Romero-Isart, Ultrasensitive inertial and force sensors with diamagnetically levitated magnets, Phys. Rev. Appl. 8, 034002 (2017).
  17. M. Janse, D. G. Uitenbroek, L. van Everdingen, J. Plugge, B. Hensen, and T. H. Oosterkamp, Current experimental upper bounds on spacetime diffusion, Phys. Rev. Res. 6, 033076 (2024).
  18. A. Vinante, P. Falferi, G. Gasbarri, A. Setter, C. Timberlake, and H. Ulbricht, Ultralow mechanical damping with Meissner-levitated ferromagnetic microparticles, Phys. Rev. Appl. 13, 064027 (2020).
  19. C. Gonzalez-Ballestero, M. Aspelmeyer, L. Novotny, R. Quidant, and O. Romero-Isart, Levitodynamics: Levitation and control of microscopic objects in vacuum, Science 374, eabg3027 (2021).
  20. M. Gutierrez Latorre, G. Higgins, A. Paradkar, T. Bauch, and W. Wieczorek, Superconducting microsphere magnetically levitated in an anharmonic potential with integrated magnetic readout, Phys. Rev. Appl. 19, 054047 (2023).
  21. J. Hofer, R. Gross, G. Higgins, H. Huebl, O. F. Kieler, R. Kleiner, D. Koelle, P. Schmidt, J. A. Slater, M. Trupke, K. Uhl, T. Weimann, W. Wieczorek, and M. Aspelmeyer, High-q magnetic levitation and control of superconducting microspheres at millikelvin temperatures, Phys. Rev. Lett. 131, 043603 (2023).
  22. P. Schmidt et al., Remote sensing of a levitated superconductor with a flux-tunable microwave cavity, Phys. Rev. Appl. 22, 014078 (2024).
  23. T. M. Fuchs, D. G. Uitenbroek, J. Plugge, N. van Halteren, J.-P. van Soest, A. Vinante, H. Ulbricht, and T. H. Oosterkamp, Measuring gravity with milligram levitated masses, Sci. Adv. 10, eadk2949 (2024).
  24. A. Vinante, C. Timberlake, and H. Ulbricht, Levitated micromagnets in superconducting traps: A new platform for tabletop fundamental physics experiments, Entropy 24, 1642 (2022).
  25. S. Bose, I. Fuentes, A. A. Geraci, S. M. Khan, S. Qvarfort, M. Rademacher, M. Rashid, M. Toroš, H. Ulbricht, and C. C. Wanjura, Massive quantum systems as interfaces of quantum mechanics and gravity, Rev. Mod. Phys. 97, 015003 (2025).
  26. G. Higgins, S. Kalia, and Z. Liu, Maglev for dark matter: Dark-photon and axion dark matter sensing with levitated superconductors, Phys. Rev. D 109, 055024 (2024).
  27. R. Li, S. Lin, L. Zhang, C. Duan, P. Huang, and J. Du, Search for ultralight dark matter with a frequency adjustable diamagnetic levitated sensor, Chin. Phys. Lett. 40, 069502 (2023).
  28. E. Kilian et al., Dark matter searches with levitated sensors, AVS Quantum Sci. 6, 030503 (2024).
  29. D. W. P. Amaral, D. G. Uitenbroek, T. H. Oosterkamp, and C. D. Tunnell, First search for ultralight dark matter using a magnetically levitated particle, Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 251001 (2025).
  30. J. Qin et al., Mechanical sensors for ultraheavy dark matter searches via long-range forces, Phys. Rev. D 112, 072003 (2025).
  31. D. Carney, G. Higgins, G. Marocco, and M. Wentzel, Superconducting levitated detector of gravitational waves, Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 181402 (2025).
  32. C. Timberlake, A. Vinante, F. Shankar, A. Lapi, and H. Ulbricht, Probing modified gravity with magnetically levitated resonators, Phys. Rev. D 104, L101101 (2021).
  33. M. Milgrom, A modification of the Newtonian dynamics as a possible alternative to the hidden mass hypothesis, Astrophys. J. 270, 365 (1983).
  34. See Supplemental Material at http://link.aps.org/supplemental/10.1103/pqrs-bpgj, which also includes Refs. [35,36], for further details on our fifth force signal approximation, employed statistics, full limit landscape, analytical sensitivity estimates, and technical details of our experimental choices.
  35. D. Baxter et al., Recommended conventions for reporting results from direct dark matter searches, Eur. Phys. J. C 81, 907 (2021).
  36. L. Dania, D. S. Bykov, F. Goschin, M. Teller, A. Kassid, and T. E. Northup, Ultrahigh quality factor of a levitated nanomechanical oscillator, Phys. Rev. Lett. 132, 133602 (2024).
  37. A. Vinante, P. Falferi, G. Gasbarri, A. Setter, C. Timberlake, and H. Ulbricht, Ultralow mechanical damping with meissner-levitated ferromagnetic microparticles, Phys. Rev. Appl. 13, 064027 (2020).
  38. F. J. Headley, A. Belenchia, M. Paternostro, and D. Braun, Quantum metrology of Newton’s constant with levitated mechanical systems, arXiv:2503.16215.
  39. F. Matichard et al., Seismic isolation of advanced LIGO: Review of strategy, instrumentation and performance, Classical Quantum Gravity 32, 185003 (2015).
  40. E. J. Groth, Probability distributions related to power spectra. Astrophys. J. Suppl. Ser. 29, 285 (1975).
  41. G. Cowan, K. Cranmer, E. Gross, and O. Vitells, Asymptotic formulae for likelihood-based tests of new physics, Eur. Phys. J. C 71, 1554 (2011); 73, 2501(E) (2013).
  42. J. K. Hoskins, R. D. Newman, R. Spero, and J. Schultz, Experimental tests of the gravitational inverse square law for mass separations from 2-cm to 105-cm, Phys. Rev. D 32, 3084 (1985).
  43. W.-H. Tan et al., Improvement for testing the gravitational inverse-square law at the submillimeter range, Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 051301 (2020).
  44. G. F. Giudice and R. Rattazzi, Theories with gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking, Phys. Rep. 322, 419 (1999).

Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. D 113, L021101– Published 27 January, 2026
  • Received 2 July 2025
  • Accepted 6 January 2026
Crossmark - Check for updates button
Creative Commons Logo

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.

Published by the American Physical Society

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation