Gravity Probe Spin: Prospects for measuring general-relativistic precession of intrinsic spin using a ferromagnetic gyroscope
Abstract
An experimental test at the intersection of quantum physics and general relativity is proposed: measurement of relativistic frame dragging and geodetic precession using intrinsic spin of electrons. The behavior of intrinsic spin in spacetime dragged and warped by a massive rotating body is an experimentally open question, hence the results of such a measurement could have important theoretical consequences. Such a measurement is possible by using mm-scale ferromagnetic gyroscopes in orbit around the Earth. Under conditions where the rotational angular momentum of a ferromagnet is sufficiently small, a ferromagnet's angular momentum is dominated by atomic electron spins and is predicted to exhibit macroscopic gyroscopic behavior. If such a ferromagnetic gyroscope is sufficiently isolated from the environment, rapid averaging of quantum uncertainty via the spin-lattice interaction enables readout of the ferromagnetic gyroscope dynamics with sufficient sensitivity to measure both the Lense-Thirring (frame dragging) and de Sitter (geodetic precession) effects due to the Earth.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2006.09334,
title = {Gravity Probe Spin: Prospects for measuring general-relativistic precession of intrinsic spin using a ferromagnetic gyroscope},
author = {Pavel Fadeev and Tao Wang and Y. B. Band and Dmitry Budker and Peter W. Graham and Alexander O. Sushkov and Derek F. Jackson Kimball},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2006.09334},
year = {2021}
}
Comments
10 pages, 7 figures