title: Research on supporting mounts of spheres in measurement of gravitational constant G.
abstract: The ongoing precision measurement of the gravitational constant G at our group is performed by using two different kinds of methods: time-of-swing method (ToS) and angular acceleration feedback method. In the two methods, the stainless steel spheres are employed as source masses, and the position stability of the spheres is an important parameter, which make suitable mounts for supporting the spheres needed extremely. In this paper, an upgraded three-point mount is introduced and tested in detail. Experimental results show that, for the sphere supported by the three-point mount used in the ToS method, the repeatability, the temperature influence, and the vibration influence are all less than 0.1 μm (about 2 ppm for the value of G). For the sphere supported by the three-point mount used in the AAF method, similar results are obtained, the largest change of the sphere's position is about 0.6 μm, introduced by a temperature change of 1 °C, which also results in an uncertainty of 2 ppm for the value of G.
authors.affiliation: MOE Key Laboratory of Fundamental Physical Quantities Measurements, School of Physics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430074, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Qing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: MOE Key Laboratory of Fundamental Physical Quantities Measurements, School of Physics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430074, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jian-Ping
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and Astronomy, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Chao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.affiliation: MOE Key Laboratory of Fundamental Physical Quantities Measurements, School of Physics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430074, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jun-Fei
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: MOE Key Laboratory of Fundamental Physical Quantities Measurements, School of Physics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430074, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Shan-Qing
authors.initials: SQ
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: MOE Key Laboratory of Fundamental Physical Quantities Measurements, School of Physics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430074, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Luo