Gravitomagnetism in Metric Theories: Analysis of Earth Satellites Results, and its Coupling with Spin

Abstract

Employing the PPN formalism the gravitomagnetic field in different metric theories is considered in the analysis of the LAGEOS results. It will be shown that there are several models that predict exactly the same effect that general relativity comprises. In other words, these Earth satellites results can be taken as experimental evidence that the orbital angular momentum of a body does indeed generate space--time geometry, notwithstanding they do not endow general relativity with an outstanding status among metric theories. Additionally the coupling spin--gravitomagnetic field is analyzed with the introduction of the Rabi transitions that this field produces on a quantum system with spin 1/2. Afterwards, a continuous measurement of the energy of this system is introduced, and the consequences upon the corresponding probabilities of the involved gravitomagnetic field will be obtained. Finally, it will be proved that these proposals allows us, not only to confront against future experiments the usual assumption of the coupling spin--gravotimagnetism, but also to measure some PPN parameters and to obtain functional dependences among them.