No Arabic abstract
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.
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 set observational constraints on the second clock effect, predicted by Weyl unified field theory, by investigating recent data on the dilated lifetime of muons accelerated by a magnetic field. These data were obtained in an experiment carried out in CERN aiming at measuring the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. In our analysis we employ the definition of invariant proper time proposed by V. Perlick, which seems to be the appropriate notion to be worked out in the context of Weyl space-time.
We study the gravitomagnetism in the Scalar-Vector-Tensor theory or Moffats Modified theory of Gravity(MOG). We compute the gravitomagnetic field that a slow-moving mass distribution produces in its Newtonian regime. We report that the consistency between the MOG gravitomagnetic field and that predicted by the Einsteins gravitional theory and measured by Gravity Probe B, LAGEOS and LAGEOS 2, and with a number of GRACE and Laser Lunar ranging measurements requires $|alpha| < 0.0013$. We provide a discussion.
As a consequence of gravitomagnetism, which is a fundamental weak-field prediction of general relativity and ubiquitous in gravitational phenomena, clocks show a difference in their proper periods when moving along identical orbits in opposite directions about a spinning mass. This time shift is induced by the rotation of the source and may be used to verify the existence of the terrestrial gravitomagnetic field by means of orbiting clocks. A possible mission scenario is outlined with emphasis given to some of the major difficulties which inevitably arise in connection with such a venture.
It is extraordinarely difficult to detect the extremely weak gravitomagnetic (GM) field of even as large a body as the earth. To detect the GM field, the gravitational analog of an ordinary magnetic field, in a modest terrestrial laboratory should be that much more difficult. Here we show, however, that for certain superconductor configuration and topologies, it should be possible to detect a measurable GM field in the terrestrial laboratory, by using the properties of superconductors imposed by quantum mechanical requirements. In particular, we show that the GM Flux should be quantized in a superconductor with non-vanishing genus, just like the ordinary magnetic flux. And this magnetically induced, quantized GM Flux, for sufficiently high quantum number and favorable geometries, should be distinguishable from the effects produced by an ordinary magnetic field.