Gravity Probe B and the Lense-Thirring eect

Alexander Bols

Introduction
On the fourth of may 2011, the nal results of the Gravity Probe B (GP-B) experiment were announced [1]. This announcement spurred a lot of publications in the popular literature about the experiment, for example the article [2] published by National Geographic. GP-B is an Earth-orbiting satellite containing four gyroscopes. The satellite is in polar orbit. GP-B is also equipped with a telescope sighted on a binary star (IM Pegasi) in the constellation Pegasus. By measuring the orientation of the angular momentum S of the gyroscopes relative to the direction of the binary star, and from a knowledge of the proper motion of the binary star, the rate of change of S is obtained. In Newtonian gravity, S would not change at all, but in GR there are two eects that cause S to precess. The de Sitter eect causes a precession about an axis perpendicular to the orbital plane of the satellite. This precession is caused by parallel transport of S along the path of the satellite. A much smaller eect is the Lense-Thirring eect which causes a precession about an axis related to the orbital angular momentum J of the earth. There is an analogy with the precession of a magnetic moment in an external magnetic eld. As we will see, the rotating the earth sources a gravitomagnetic eld H. The gyroscopes will precess about H much like a magnetic moment precesses about a magnetic eld. In this article we will focus on the Lense-Thirring eect and its analogy with electrodynamics.

Lense-Thirring eect and analogy with electrodynamics

setting up the problem We will consider the gravitational eld sourced by a local stationary distribution of dust in the weak eld and slow motion limit. That is, we write the metric as g = + h with |h | << 1 and the four velocity u of any particle satises u0 >> ui . (2) Because u u = 1 it follows that (u0 )2 1, (ui )2 0 and u0 ui = (u0 )2 v i v i with v i dxi /dt is the particles velocity relative to the at background geometry. 1 (1)

In the lorenz gauge we have = 2 h = 16T h (3)

because the metric cannot depend on time. The energy-momentum tensor for dust is T = u u (4) so T 00 = T ij 0 because of the slow motion limit. All that remains is T 0i = T i0 = v i so 0i = 16v i . 2 h (5) These are three Poisson equations reminiscent of 2 A = 4 j for the vector potential sourced by a stationary current distribution. Their solution is 0i (x) = 4 h d3 x (x )v i (x ) . |x x | (6)

As it stand now, the problem is very general. The earth is in good approximation a rigid sphere rotating with xed angular velocity about a xed axis, we will now consider this case. uniformly rotating spheres Consider a rotating sphere of radius R at the center of the coordinate system. The density is then a function of r only, and vanishes if r > R. Choose axes such that the angular velocity of the sphere is given by = (0, 0, ) then the classical angular momentum of the sphere is given by J= d3 x x (v) = x ( x)r2 ddr = 8 3 (r)r4 dr. (7)

01 , Writing h (h h02 , h03 ), a somewhat tedious integration yields h(x) = 4 = d3 x (r ) x |x x | (r )r4 dr (8) (9) (10)

16 x 3r 3 Jx = 2 |x|3

for |x| > R, i.e. outside the sphere. This result should be compared to the vector potential due to a magnetic moment m given by A(x) = mx . |x|3 (11)

We are thus led to the following correspondences h A J m with electromagnetism. 2 (12) (13)

the gravitomagnetic eld and the analogue of the Lorentz force The correspondence h A inspires us to dene a gravitomagnetic eld H in analogy to the magnetic eld B = A as Hh=2 ) J 3(J x x . |x|3 (14)

In order to justify the analogy, we should be able to nd a Lorentz force v H and indeed, we can. Consider a particle that moves slowly in the eld produced by the rotating sphere. The space components of the geodesic equations are dui = i u u d 0 2 i 0 j 2 = i 00 (u ) 20j u u + O (v ) 1 = i (0 h0 + 0 h0 h00 ) i (0 hj + j h0 h0j )v j 2 1 = i h00 ( j hi0 i h0j )vj 2 0j )vj i0 i h = i ( j h = +
i i i ijk

(15) (16) (17) (18) (19) (20) (21) (22)

( h)k vj
i i

= + (v ( h)) = + (v H)

In the second line we used the slow motion limit. The third line is writing out the Christoel symbols in the weak eld limit. To obtain the fourth line we use the stationarity of the metric. In the fth line we recognise h00 in the weak eld 0i = h0i because limit as the Newtonian potential and we use h h and h dier only in their diagonal elements. The sixth and seventh lines rewrite the ugly expression as a crossproduct and nally we recognise the denition of H in the expression. We thus obtain an expression in vector form for the acceleration of a test particle moving in the gravitational eld of a rotating sphere: a = + v H (23)

which has the same form as the Lorentz force of electrodynamics. We also notice a correspondence between the Newtonian potential and minus the electric potential. the Lense-Thirring eect We have obtained formulas for the quantities h, H and the acceleration a of a test particle that have the same form as the known formulas for A, B and the Lorentz force respectively. Consequently, the entire machinery of the electrodynamics of stationary current distributions can be taken over. 3

In particular, a magnetic moment m in an external magnetic eld B experiences a torque given by = m B. (24) Likewise, a gyroscope with angular momentum S in a gravitational eld will experience a torque 1 dS S. = SH= (25) 2 dt Therefore, a gyroscope with angular momentum S moving in the eld of a rotating sphere of angular momentum J will precess about an axis ) xJ = 1 H = 3(J x . 2 |x| (26)

This precession due to the gravitomagnetic eld is called the Lense-Thirring eect. Since GP-B is in polar orbit, the gravitomagnetic eld experienced by its gyroscopes is not constant but depends on the latitude. By averaging over latitudes, one obtains Lense-Thirring precession of about -39.2 milliarcsec per year. The experimental result published in may 2011 is -37.2 7.2 milliarsec per year, in good agreement with the predicted precession [1].

References
[1] Everitt et al., Gravity Probe B: Final Results of a Space Experiment to Test General Relativity Physical Review Letters 106 (22): 221101. arXiv:1105.3456 [2] Than, Ker. Einstein Theories Conrmed by NASA Gravity Probe, National Geographic, 5 May 2011. Web. 18 Jan. 2014. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/05/110505-einsteintheories-conrmed-gravity-probe-nasa-space-science/. [3] I. Ciufolini and J. A. Wheeler, Gravitation and Inertia, (Princeton University Press, New Jersey, 1995).