A Test of General Relativity Using the LARES and LAGEOS Satellites and a GRACE Earth's Gravity Model

TL;DR

This study tests Einstein's General Relativity by measuring Earth's frame-dragging effect using satellite laser ranging data and a gravity model, confirming the theory's predictions within experimental uncertainties.

Contribution

It provides a precise measurement of Earth's frame-dragging effect using combined satellite data and an advanced gravity model, improving the accuracy of previous tests.

Findings

Measured Earth's frame-dragging parameter μ = 0.994 ± 0.002 ± 0.05

Results agree with General Relativity predictions

Systematic errors mainly due to Earth's gravity model uncertainties

Abstract

We present a test of General Relativity, the measurement of the Earth's dragging of inertial frames. Our result is obtained using about 3.5 years of laser-ranged observations of the LARES, LAGEOS and LAGEOS 2 laser-ranged satellites together with the Earth's gravity field model GGM05S produced by the space geodesy mission GRACE. We measure $\mu = (0.994 \pm 0.002) \pm 0.05$, where $\mu$ is the Earth's dragging of inertial frames normalized to its General Relativity value, 0.002 is the 1-sigma formal error and 0.05 is the estimated systematic error mainly due to the uncertainties in the Earth's gravity model GGM05S. Our result is in agreement with the prediction of General Relativity.