High Accuracy Measurement of the Solar Gravitational Deflection of Radio Waves

Guilford College, Greensboro NC

Investigators

Abstract

Investigators at Guilford College, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), and the United States Naval Observatory jointly propose to analyze about two decades of (existing) very long baseline interferomentry (VLBI data to increase, by an order of magnitude, the accuracy of measurements of the parameter y which characterizes the contribution of space curvature to gravitational deflection. A significant part of this proposal involves the role of undergraduate students. During the summer, a Guilford College undergraduate will accompany the P.I. to a major research facility (the CfA) and will participate in ongoing scientific research. As evidenced by the large number of student-initiated research projects published each year by the National Council on Undergraduate Research, physics students from Guilford College have been quite successful doing and presenting their research work.