Gravitational perturbations on local experiments in a satellite : The dragging of inertial frame in the HYPER project

TL;DR

This paper analyzes gravitational perturbations affecting local inertial frame measurements in a satellite, focusing on the feasibility of detecting the Earth's Lense-Thirring effect using atomic interferometers and light deflection measurements.

Contribution

It provides a detailed theoretical framework for assessing gravitational perturbations and their impact on detecting frame-dragging effects in satellite-based experiments.

Findings

Quadrupolar gravitational deflection is significant for Lense-Thirring detection.

Perturbations from residual tidal fields influence phase shifts in measurements.

A geometric model identifies key periodic components for signal analysis.

Abstract

We consider a nearly free falling Earth satellite where atomic wave interferometers are tied to a telescope pointing towards a faraway star. They measure the acceleration and the rotation relatively to the local inertial frame. We calculate the rotation of the telescope due to the aberrations and the deflection of the light in the gravitational field of the Earth. We show that the deflection due to the quadrupolar momentum of the gravity is not negligible if one wants to observe the Lense-Thirring effect of the Earth. We consider some perturbation to the ideal device and we discuss the orders of magnitude of the phase shifts due to the residual tidal gravitational field in the satellite and we exhibit the terms which must be taken into account to calculate and interpret the full signal. Within the framework of a geometric model, we calculate the various periodic components of the signal which must be analyzed to detect the Lense-Tirring effect. We discuss the results which support a reasonable optimism. As a conclusion we put forward the necessity of a more complete, realistic and powerful model in order to obtain a final conclusion on the theoretical feasibility of the experiment as far as the observation of the Lense-Thirring effect is involved.