89 research outputs found
Ultra--cold gases and the detection of the Earth's rotation: Bogoliubov space and gravitomagnetism
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.Comment: 4 page
Beyond Gravitoelectromagnetism: Critical Speed in Gravitational Motion
A null ray approaching a distant astronomical source appears to slow down,
while a massive particle speeds up in accordance with Newtonian gravitation.
The integration of these apparently incompatible aspects of motion in general
relativity is due to the existence of a critical speed. Dynamics of particles
moving faster than the critical speed could then be contrary to Newtonian
expectations. Working within the framework of gravitoelectromagnetism, the
implications of the existence of a critical speed are explored. The results are
expected to be significant for high energy astrophysics.Comment: 13 pages, to appear in the Special December 2005 Issue of Int. J.
Mod. Phys.
About Gravitomagnetism
The gravitomagnetic field is the force exerted by a moving body on the basis
of the intriguing interplay between geometry and dynamics which is the analog
to the magnetic field of a moving charged body in electromagnetism. The
existence of such a field has been demonstrated based on special relativity
approach and also by special relativity plus the gravitational time dilation
for two different cases, a moving infinite line and a uniformly moving point
mass, respectively. We treat these two approaches when the applied cases are
switched while appropriate key points are employed. Thus, we demonstrate that
the strength of the resulted gravitomagnetic field in the latter approach is
twice the former. Then, we also discuss the full linearized general relativity
and show that it should give the same strength for gravitomagnetic field as the
latter approach. Hence, through an exact analogy with the electrodynamic
equations, we present an argument in order to indicate the best definition
amongst those considered in this issue in the literature. Finally, we
investigate the gravitomagnetic effects and consequences of different
definitions on the geodesic equation including the second order approximation
terms.Comment: 16 pages, a few amendments have been performed and a new section has
been adde
Gravitomagnetism and the Clock Effect
The main theoretical aspects of gravitomagnetism are reviewed. It is shown
that the gravitomagnetic precession of a gyroscope is intimately connected with
the special temporal structure around a rotating mass that is revealed by the
gravitomagnetic clock effect. This remarkable effect, which involves the
difference in the proper periods of a standard clock in prograde and retrograde
circular geodesic orbits around a rotating mass, is discussed in detail. The
implications of this effect for the notion of ``inertial dragging'' in the
general theory of relativity are presented. The theory of the clock effect is
developed within the PPN framework and the possibility of measuring it via
spaceborne clocks is examined.Comment: 27 pages, LaTeX, submitted to Proc. Bad Honnef Meeting on: GYROS,
CLOCKS, AND INTERFEROMETERS: TESTING GENERAL RELATIVITY IN SPACE (22 - 27
August 1999; Bad Honnef, Germany
Gravitomagnetism in teleparallel gravity
The assumption that matter charges and currents could generate fields, which
are called, by analogy with electromagnetism, gravitoeletric and
gravitomagnetic fields, dates from the origins of General Relativity (GR). On
the other hand, the Teleparallel Equivalent of GR (TEGR), as a gauge theory,
seems to be the ideal scenario to define these fields, based on the gauge field
strength components. The purpose of the present work is to investigate the
nature of the gravitational electric and magnetic fields in the context of the
TEGR, where the tetrad formalism behind it seems to be more appropriated to
deal with phenomena related to observers.
As our main results, we have obtained, for the first time, the exact
expressions for the gravito-electromagnetic fields for the Schwarzschild
solution that in the linear approximation become the usual expected ones. To
improve our understanding about these fields, we have also studied the geometry
produced by a spherical rotating shell in slow motion and weak field regime.
Again, the expressions obtained are in complete agreement with those of
electromagnetism.Comment: 25 pages. Submitted to International Journal of Modern Physics D.
Version 2: some new discussions, references adde
Phenomenology of the Lense-Thirring effect in the Solar System
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 dynamical origin
to realistically elucidate the present and future perspectives in directly
measuring such an elusive relativistic effect.Comment: LaTex, 51 pages, 14 figures, 22 tables. Invited review, to appear in
Astrophysics and Space Science (ApSS). Some uncited references in the text
now correctly quoted. One reference added. A footnote adde
- …