Inductive rectilinear frame dragging and local coupling to the gravitational field of the universe

TL;DR

This paper discusses a form of inductive rectilinear frame dragging caused by the universe's gravitational field, which allows local measurement of cosmological metrics and involves energy dissipation during uniform motion.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of inductive rectilinear frame dragging in cosmology, distinct from traditional frame dragging, and highlights its implications for local measurements and energy exchange.

Findings

Existence of a small but fundamental drag force on moving bodies in the universe.

This drag force can be understood as inductive rectilinear frame dragging.

Traditional gravito-magnetic invariants do not capture this effect.

Abstract

There is a drag force on objects moving in the background cosmological metric, known from galaxy cluster dynamics. The force is quite small over laboratory timescales, yet it applies in principle to all moving bodies in the universe. It means it is possible for matter to exchange momentum and energy with the gravitational field of the universe, and that the cosmological metric can be determined in principle from local measurements on moving bodies. The drag force can be understood as inductive rectilinear frame dragging. This dragging force exists in the rest frame of a moving object, and arises from the off-diagonal components induced in the boosted-frame metric. Unlike the Kerr metric or other typical frame-dragging geometries, cosmological inductive dragging occurs at uniform velocity, along the direction of motion, and dissipates energy. Proposed gravito-magnetic invariants formed from contractions of the Riemann tensor do not appear to capture inductive dragging effects, and this might be the first identification of inductive rectilinear dragging.