How to measure gravitational frame-dragging on Earth with a superfluid interferometer

ORAL

Abstract

First derived by Lense and Thirring in 1918, frame-dragging is a genuinely general relativistic effect. Reported measurements of frame-dragging use satellites in Earth orbit. These tests rely on the accumulation of frame-dragging precession over many orbital periods and comparison with 'fixed stars' or Earth gravity models. We propose a 'table-top' experiment to locally measure the frame-dragging effect on Earth, using a Superfluid Helium Quantum Interference Device (SHeQUID), a superfluid analog of a conventional Superconducting Quantum Interference Device (SQUID). We derive the frame-dragging effect in a SHeQUID and present a concrete proposal for its experimental realization.

*K.E. and B.W. were supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Quantum Leap Challenge Institutes (QLCI) program through Grant No. OMA-2016245. M.C. was supported by the John Templeton Foundation Grant No. 61466 through the Quantum Information Structure of Spacetime (QISS) project. K.S. was supported by NSF Award No. 2326801.

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Publication: K.-I. Ellers, M. Christodoulou, K.C. Schwab, K.B. Whaley, "How to measure gravitational frame-dragging on Earth with a superfluid interferometer", in preparation.

Presenters

  • Kai-Isaak E Ellers

    • University of California, Berkeley

Authors

  • Kai-Isaak E Ellers

    • University of California, Berkeley

  • Marios Christodoulou

    • Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information, Vienna

  • Keith Schwab

    • CalTech

  • Birgitta K Whaley

    • University of California, Berkeley