RESUMO
The MICROSCOPE mission was designed to test the weak equivalence principle (WEP), stating the equality between the inertial and the gravitational masses, with a precision of 10^{-15} in terms of the Eötvös ratio η. Its experimental test consisted of comparing the accelerations undergone by two collocated test masses of different compositions as they orbited the Earth, by measuring the electrostatic forces required to keep them in equilibrium. This was done with ultrasensitive differential electrostatic accelerometers onboard a drag-free satellite. The mission lasted two and a half years, cumulating five months worth of science free-fall data, two-thirds with a pair of test masses of different compositions-titanium and platinum alloys-and the last third with a reference pair of test masses of the same composition-platinum. We summarize the data analysis, with an emphasis on the characterization of the systematic uncertainties due to thermal instabilities and on the correction of short-lived events which could mimic a WEP violation signal. We found no violation of the WEP, with the Eötvös parameter of the titanium and platinum pair constrained to η(Ti,Pt)=[-1.5±2.3(stat)±1.5(syst)]×10^{-15} at 1σ in statistical errors.
RESUMO
According to the weak equivalence principle, all bodies should fall at the same rate in a gravitational field. The MICROSCOPE satellite, launched in April 2016, aims to test its validity at the 10^{-15} precision level, by measuring the force required to maintain two test masses (of titanium and platinum alloys) exactly in the same orbit. A nonvanishing result would correspond to a violation of the equivalence principle, or to the discovery of a new long-range force. Analysis of the first data gives δ(Ti,Pt)=[-1±9(stat)±9(syst)]×10^{-15} (1σ statistical uncertainty) for the titanium-platinum Eötvös parameter characterizing the relative difference in their free-fall accelerations.
RESUMO
When we read that two protagonists in a story chatted together for a couple of minutes, do we draw inferences about the topic of the conversation on the basis of information presented earlier in the text? Participants read passages in which protagonists part and later reunite; the passages ended with a sentence either that implied conversation or did not. In Experiment 1, participants' continuation sentences indicated that inferences about the topic of conversation were drawn. Recognition probe data in Experiment 2 provided more immediate evidence of such inferences. Experiment 3 addressed a possible confound in Experiment 2 and again provided evidence that readers inferred the continuation of the conversation. In Experiments 4 and 5, we investigated the effect of having the targeted conversational topic be a secret that should not be shared between the protagonists. The results are discussed in terms of the collaboration between passive, memory-based text processing and schema-driven comprehension processes.
