New Superfluid Relativity Gyroscope

Abstract

Experiments have been performed in which mechanical radiation pressure, generated by a megahertz sound field in helium II, successfully supported a metal sphere three dimensionally. Because the field's forces are spherically symmetrical and stable, and because the isothermal environment provided by the quantum coherence properties of helium II eliminates convection currents, only extremely small stray torques act on the suspended mass. It is demonstrated that stray torques less than 10−7 dyn cm were present on the early test model, consistent with the theoretical predictions. Also presented is the predicted performance, based upon these results, of a more refined superfluid gyroscope which demonstrates the feasibility of observing general relativistic gyroscopic motion with a gyroscope rigidly connected to the earth. A proposed experiment to discriminate between Einstein's theory and competing theories of gravitation by measuring the spin-spin interaction between a gyroscope and the spinning earth is also discussed.