Kavli Affiliate: Birgitta Whaley
| First 5 Authors: Kai-Isaak Ellers, Kai-Isaak Ellers, , ,
| Summary:
We propose a laboratory-scale experiment to locally measure the general
relativistic frame-dragging effect on Earth using the macroscopic quantum
properties of a novel superfluid $^4$He single Josephson junction gyrometer. We
derive the frame-dragging and related geodetic and Thomas effects in the
superfluid gyrometer and present a procedure for their experimental
measurement. We compute the expected thermal noise floor and find that very
high sensitivity can be expected at millikelvin temperatures, where near-future
Josephson junctions using nanoporous 2D materials are expected to operate.
Assuming utilization of the lowest mechanical loss materials, we find a noise
spectral density of $5times 10^-17$ rads/s/$sqrtmathrmHz$ at 10 mK,
which is sufficient to resolve the frame-dragging rate to 0.2% within one
second of measurement, giving a rotational sensitivity of 1 revolution in 4
Byrs. This extreme sensitivity to rotation corresponds to a measurement of
proper time differences as small as $10^-35$ s.
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