Murphy T W, Nordtvedt K, Turyshev S G
University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, California 92093-0424, USA.
Phys Rev Lett. 2007 Feb 16;98(7):071102. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.071102. Epub 2007 Feb 13.
Gravitomagnetism--a motional coupling of matter analogous to the Lorentz force in electromagnetism--has observable consequences for any scenario involving differing mass currents. Examples include gyroscopes located near a rotating massive body and the interaction of two orbiting bodies. In the former case, the resulting precession of the gyroscope is often called "frame dragging" and is the principal measurement sought by the Gravity Probe-B experiment. The latter case is realized in the Earth-Moon system, and the effect has in fact been confirmed via lunar laser ranging to approximately 0.1% accuracy--better than the anticipated accuracy of the Gravity-Probe-B result. This Letter shows the connection between these seemingly disparate phenomena by employing the same gravitomagnetic term in the equation of motion to obtain both gyroscopic precession and modification of the lunar orbit.
引力磁学——一种类似于电磁学中洛伦兹力的物质运动耦合——对于任何涉及不同质量流的情况都有可观测的结果。例子包括位于旋转大质量物体附近的陀螺仪以及两个轨道运行天体之间的相互作用。在前一种情况下，陀螺仪产生的进动通常被称为“惯性系拖曳”，这是引力探测器B实验所寻求的主要测量结果。后一种情况在地球 - 月球系统中得以体现，实际上通过月球激光测距已证实该效应的精度约为0.1%——优于引力探测器B结果的预期精度。本文通过在运动方程中使用相同的引力磁项来获得陀螺仪进动和月球轨道修正，展示了这些看似不同的现象之间的联系。
