Geodetic Precession of the Spin in a Non-Singular Gravitational Potential
| Scientific Paper | |
|---|---|
| Title | Geodetic Precession of the Spin in a Non-Singular Gravitational Potential |
| Read in full | Link to paper |
| Author(s) | Michael Harney, Ioannis Iraklis Haranas |
| Keywords | gravitational potential, precession, spin, Theory of Relativity, General Relativity |
| Published | 2008 |
| Journal | Progress In Physics |
| Volume | 1 |
| No. of pages | 6 |
| Pages | 75-80 |
Read the full paper here
Abstract
Using a non-singular gravitational potential which appears in the literature we analytically derived and investigated the equations describing the precession of a body's spin orbiting around a main spherical body of mass M. The calculation has been performed using a non-exact Schwarzschild solution, and further assuming that the gravitational field of the Earth is more than that of a rotating mass. General theory of relativity predicts that the direction of the gyroscope will change at a rate of 6.6 arcsec/year for a gyroscope in a 650 km high polar orbit. In our case a precession rate of the spin of a very similar magnitude to that predicted by general relativity was calculated resulting to a (Delta)Sgeo / Sgeo = -5.570x10-2.