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Lorenz Keck, Kumar Arumugam, Leon Chao, Zane Comden, Frank Seifert, David Newell, Darine El Haddad, Stephan Schlamminger
Abstract
We revisit the Kibble-Robinson Theory (KRT), first proposed in 2014 by Kibble and Robinson, which significantly simplifies the construction and operation of Kibble balances. We conducted a theoretical investigation of the theory's assumptions, using a corner cube as the optical target in the interferometer for velocity measurement. We find that it is advantageous to build a mechanism whose output has minimal rotation and horizontal motion. For balances with relative uncertainty targets below \SI1e-6}}, the mass pan and the optical target should be suspended from a common gimbal so they have the same vertical velocity and no rotation. In this case, the measurement biases due to Abbe offset and corner loading are small.
Keck, L.
, Arumugam, K.
, Chao, L.
, Comden, Z.
, Seifert, F.
, Newell, D.
, El Haddad, D.
and Schlamminger, S.
(2025),
Thoughts on the Kibble-Robinson Theory, Metrologia, [online], https://doi.org/10.1088/1681-7575/adc30e, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=959319
(Accessed October 1, 2025)