Thoughts on the Kibble-Robinson Theory

Published

March 31, 2025

Author(s)

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.

Citation

Metrologia

Volume

62

Issue

2

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1088/1681-7575/adc30e

Local Download

Keywords

Kibble balance, alignment, mass realization, Kibble-Robinson theory.

Citation

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 10, 2025)