We numerically work out the impact of the general relativistic Lense-Thirring effect on the Earth-Mercury range caused by the gravitomagnetic field of the rotating Sun. The peak-to peak nominal amplitude of the resulting time-varying signal amounts to 1.75 10^1 m over a temporal interval 2 yr. Future interplanetary laser ranging facilities should reach a cm-level in ranging to Mercury over comparable timescales; for example, the BepiColombo mission, to be launched in 2014, should reach a 4.5 - 10 cm level over 1 - 8 yr. We looked also at other Newtonian (solar quadrupole mass moment, ring of the minor asteroids, Ceres, Pallas, Vesta, Trans-Neptunian Objects) and post-Newtonian (gravitoelectric Schwarzschild solar field) dynamical effects on the Earth-Mercury range. They act as sources of systematic errors for the Lense-Thirring signal which, in turn, if not properly modeled, may bias the recovery of some key parameters of such other dynamical features of motion. Their nominal peak-to-peak amplitudes are as large as 4 10^5 m (Schwarzschild), 3 10^2 m (Sun's quadrupole), 8 10^1 m (Ceres, Pallas, Vesta), 4 m (ring of minor asteroids), 8 10^-1 m (Trans-Neptunian Objects). Their temporal patterns are different with respect to that of the gravitomagnetic signal.
The possibility of a Newtonian gravitomagnetic field is considered here with its immediate and far-reaching implications for the interpretation of 2004 LAGEOS experimental results confirming the general relativistic prediction of Lense-Thirring effect.
We focus on the possibility of measuring the gravitomagnetic effects due to the rotation of the Earth, by means of a space-based experiment that exploits satellites in geostationary orbits. Due to the rotation of the Earth, there is an asymmetry in the propagation of electromagnetic signals in opposite directions along a closed path around the Earth. We work out the delays between the two counter-propagating beams for a simple configuration, and suggest that accurate time measurements could allow, in principle, to detect the gravitomagnetic effect of the Earth
The paper contains a proposed experiment for testing the gravitomagnetic effect on the propagation of light around a rotating mass. The idea is to use a rotating spherical laboratory-scale shell, around which two mutually orthogonal lightguides are wound acting as the arms of an interferometer. Numerical estimates show that time of flight differences between the equatorial and polar guides could be in the order of $\sim 10^{-20}$ s, actually detectable with sensitivity perfectly comparable with those expected in gravitational wave detection experiments.
The present work analyzes the consequences of the gravitomagnetic effect of the Earth upon a bosonic gas in which the corresponding atoms have a non--vanishing orbital angular momentum. Concerning the ground state of the Bogoliubov space of this system we deduce the consequences, on the pressure and on the speed of sound, of the gravitomagnetic effect. We prove that the effect on a single atom is very small, but we also show that for some thermodynamical properties the consequences scale as a non--trivial function of the number of particles.
Employing the PPN formalism the gravitomagnetic field in different metric theories is considered in the analysis of the LAGEOS results. It will be shown that there are several models that predict exactly the same effect that general relativity comprises. In other words, these Earth satellites results can be taken as experimental evidence that the orbital angular momentum of a body does indeed generate space--time geometry, notwithstanding they do not endow general relativity with an outstanding status among metric theories. Additionally the coupling spin--gravitomagnetic field is analyzed with…
In this work we introduce two experimental proposals that could shed some light upon the inertial properties of intrinsic spin. In particular we will analyze the role that the gravitomagnetic field of the Earth could have on a quantum system with spin 1/2. We will deduce the expression for Rabi transitions, which depend, explicitly, on the coupling between the spin of the quantum system and the gravitomagnetic field of the Earth. Afterwards, the continuous measurement of the energy of the spin 1/2 system is considered, and an expression for the emerging quantum Zeno effect is obtained. Thus, i…
LAGEOS is an accurately-tracked, dense spherical satellite covered with 426 retroreflectors. The tracking accuracy is such as to yield a medium term (years to decades) inertial reference frame determined via relatively inexpensive observations. This frame is used as an adjunct to the more difficult and data intensive VLBI absolute frame measurements. There is a substantial secular precession of the satellite's line of nodes consistent with the classical, Newtonian precession due to the non-sphericity of the earth. Ciufolini has suggested the launch of an identical satellite (LAGEOS-3) into an …
The difference in the proper azimuthal periods of revolution of two standard clocks in direct and retrograde orbits about a central rotating mass is proportional to J/Mc^2, where J and M are, respectively, the proper angular momentum and mass of the source. In connection with this gravitomagnetic clock effect, we explore the possibility of using spaceborne standard clocks for detecting the gravitomagnetic field of the Earth. It is shown that this approach to the measurement of the gravitomagnetic field is, in a certain sense, theoretically equivalent to the Gravity Probe-B concept.
We explore the geodesic movement on an effective four-dimensional hypersurface that is embedded in a five-dimensional Ricci-flat manifold described by a canonical metric, in order to applying to planetary orbits in our solar system. Some important solutions are given, which provide the standard solutions of general relativity without any extra force component. We study the perihelion advances of Mercury, the Earth and Pluto using the extended theory of general relativity (ETGR). Our results are in very good agreement with observations and show how the foliation is determinant to the value of t…
New techniques to evaluate the clock effect using light are described. These are based on the flatness of the cylindrical surface containing the world lines of the rays constrained to move on circular trajectories about a spinning mass. The effect of the angular momentum of the source is manifested in the fact that inertial observers must be replaced by local non rotating observers. Starting from this an exact formula for circular trajectories is found. Numerical estimates for the Earth environment show that light would be a better probe than actual clocks to evidence the angular momentum infl…
In the last two decades an anomalous variation in the asymptotic velocity of spacecraft performing a flyby manoeuvre around Earth has been discovered through careful Doppler tracking and orbital analysis. No viable hypothesis for a conventional explanation of this effect has been proposed and its origin remains unexplained. In this paper we discuss a strong transversal component of the gravitomagnetic field as a possible source of the flyby anomaly. We show that the perturbations induced by such a field could fit the anomalies both in sign and order of magnitude. But, although the secular cont…
In this note we mainly explore the possibility of measuring the action of the intrinsic gravitomagnetic field of the rotating Earth on the orbital motion of the Moon with the Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR) technique. Expected improvements in it should push the precision in measuring the Earth-Moon range to the mm level; the present-day Root-Mean-Square (RMS) accuracy in reconstructing the radial component of the lunar orbit is about 2 cm; its harmonic terms can be determined at the mm level. The current uncertainty in measuring the lunar precession rates is about 10^-1 milliarcseconds per year. The…
We construct a set of reference frames for description of the orbital and rotational motion of the Moon. We use a scalar-tensor theory of gravity depending on two parameters of the parametrized post-Newtonian (PPN) formalism and utilize the concepts of the relativistic resolutions on reference frames adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 2000. We assume that the solar system is isolated and space-time is asymptotically flat. The primary reference frame has the origin at the solar-system barycenter (SSB) and spatial axes are going to infinity. The SSB frame is not rotating with res…
A rotating black hole causes the spin-axis of a nearby pulsar to precess due to geodetic and gravitomagnetic frame-dragging effects. The aim of our theoretical work here is to explore how this spin-precession can modify the rate at which pulses are received on earth. Towards this end, we obtain the complete evolution of the beam vectors of pulsars moving on equatorial circular orbits in the Kerr spacetime, relative to asymptotic fixed observers. We proceed to establish that such spin-precession effects can significantly modify observed pulse frequencies and, in specific, we find that the obser…
In 2007, the observed Earth flyby anomalies have been successfully simulated using an empirical formula (H. J. Busack, 2007). This simulation has led to the prediction of anomaly values, to be expected for the Rosetta flybys of Mars in 2007, and following twice of Earth in 2007 and 2009. While the data for the Mars flyby are yet under evaluation, the predictions of the formula for the last two Earth flybys of Rosetta are fully confirmed now. This is remarkable, since an alternatively proposed formula (Anderson et al., 2007) failed to predict the correct values for the recent flybys. For the Me…
This paper contains a review of the theory and practice of gravitomagnetism, with particular attention to the different and numerous proposals which have been put forward to experimentally or observationally verify its effects. The basics of the gravitoelectromagnetic form of the Einstein equations is expounded. Then the Lense-Thirring and clock effects are described, reviewing the essentials of the theory. Space based and Earth based experiments are listed. Other effects, such as the coupling of gravitomagnetism with spin, are described and orders of magnitude are considered to give an idea o…
Gravitomagnetic effects originates from the rotation of the source of the gravitational field and from the rotational features of the observers' frame. In recent years, gravitomagnetism has been tested by means of its impact on the precession of LAGEOS orbits and on the precession of spherical gyroscopes in the GP-B experiment. What we suggest here is that light can be used as a probe to test gravitomagnetic effects in an terrestrial laboratory: the proposed detector consists of large ring-lasers arranged along three orthogonal axes.
Rotation of a body, according to Einstein's theory of general relativity, generates a "force" on other matter; in Newton's gravitational theory only the mass of a body produces a force. This phenomenon, due to currents of mass, is known as gravitomagnetism owing to its formal analogies with magnetism due to currents of electric charge. Therefore, according to general relativity, Earth's rotation should influence the motion of its orbiting satellites. Indeed, we analysed the laser ranging observations of the orbits of the satellites LAGEOS and LAGEOS II, using a program developed at NASA/GSFC, …
After an introduction on phenomena due to spin and mass-energy currents on clocks and photons, we review the 1995-2001 measurements of the gravitomagnetic field of Earth and Lense-Thirring effect obtained by analyzing the orbits of the two laser-ranged satellites LAGEOS and LAGEOS II; this method has provided a direct measurement of Earth's gravitomagnetism with accuracy of the order of 20 %. A future accurate measurement of the Lense-Thirring effect, at the level of 1 % accuracy, may include the LARES experiment that will also provide other basic tests of general relativity and gravitation. F…
Recent years have seen increasing efforts to directly measure some aspects of the general relativistic gravitomagnetic interaction in several astronomical scenarios in the solar system. After briefly overviewing the concept of gravitomagnetism from a theoretical point of view, we review the performed or proposed attempts to detect the Lense-Thirring effect affecting the orbital motions of natural and artificial bodies in the gravitational fields of the Sun, Earth, Mars and Jupiter. In particular, we will focus on the evaluation of the impact of several sources of systematic uncertainties of dy…
We analytically calculate the time series for the perturbations $Δρ(t),~Δ\dotρ(t)$ induced by a general disturbing acceleration $\boldsymbol{A}$ on the mutual range $ρ$ and range-rate $\dotρ$ of two test particles $\textrm{A},~\textrm{B}$ orbiting the same spinning body. We apply it to the general relativistic Lense-Thirring effect, due to the primary's spin $\boldsymbol{S}$, and the classical perturbation arising from its quadrupole mass moment $J_2$ for arbitrary orbital geometries and orientation of the source's symmetry axis $\boldsymbol{\hat{S}}$. The Earth-Mercury range and range-rate ar…
I calculate the classical effects induced by an isotropic mass loss of a body on the orbital motion of a test particle around it. By applying my results to the phase in which the radius of the Sun, already moved to the Red Giant Branch of the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram, will become as large as 1.20 AU in about 1 Myr, I find that the Earth's perihelion position on the fixed line of the apsides will increase by about 0.22-0.25 AU (for \dot M/M = 2 x 10^-7 yr^-1); other researchers point towards an increase of 0.37-0.63 AU. Mercury will be destroyed already at the end of the Main Sequence, while…
We analytically work out the perturbation induced by the Kehagias-Sfetsos (KS) space-time solution of the Horava-Lifshitz (HL) modified gravity at long distances on the two-body range for a pair of test particles A and B orbiting the same mass M. We apply our results to the most recently obtained range-residuals δρfor some planets of the solar system (Mercury, Mars, Saturn) ranged from the Earth to effectively constrain the dimensionsless KS parameter ψ_0 for the Sun. We obtain ψ_0 >= 7.2 x 10^-10 (Mercury), ψ_0 >= 9 x 10^-12 (Mars), ψ_0 >= 1.7 x 10^-12 (Saturn). Such lower bounds are tighter …
We numerically investigate the impact on the two-body range by several Newtonian and non-Newtonian dynamical effects for some Earth-planet (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn) pairs in view of the expected cm-level accuracy in some future planned or proposed interplanetary ranging operations (abridged).
The analysis of the observational data for the secular perihelion precession of Mercury, Earth, and Mars, based on the EPM2004 ephemerides, results in new upper limits on density of dark matter in the Solar system.
The general relativistic Lense-Thirring precessions of the perihelia of the inner planets of the Solar System are about 10^-3 arcseconds per century. Recent improvements in planetary orbit determination may yield the first observational evidence of such a tiny effect. Indeed, corrections to the known perihelion rates of -0.0036 +/- 0.0050, -0.0002 +/- 0.0004 and 0.0001 +/- 0.0005 arcseconds per century were recently estimated by E.V. Pitjeva for Mercury, the Earth and Mars, respectively, on the basis of the EPM2004 ephemerides and a set of more than 317,000 observations of various kinds. The p…
In the weak field and slow motion approximation, the general relativistic field equations are linearized, resembling those of the electromagnetic theory. In a way analogous to that of a moving charge generating a magnetic field, a mass energy current can produce a gravitomagnetic field. In this contribution, the motion of a secondary celestial body is studied under the influence of the gravitomagnetic force generated by a spherical primary. More specifically, two equations are derived to approximate the periastron time rate of change and its total variation over one revolution (i.e., the diffe…
