Dragging of inertial frames by the rotating Earth: Proposal and feasibility for a ground-based detection

Abstract

We are proposing a ground-based experiment to detect the Lense-Thirring drag due to the rotating earth by an off-line comparison between an astrometric measurement of the Earth rotation and an inertial measurement of the angular velocity of the laboratory. It is shown that the former, by means of routine observations of Very Long Baseline Interferometry, has already reached the accuracy needed to perform a 3 % experiment on a time span of ∼1 yr. We propose to perform the latter by a dynamical detector of local rotation of novel conception, the Gyromagnetic Electron Gyroscope. Its principle of operation is briefly discussed together with its response to rotationlike gravitational fields.