Frame Dragging

[John Clark]

Einstein wins yet again. In today's issue of the Journal Science astronomers report that after observing a Neutron Star that pulses 2.5387230404 times per second that is in orbit around a White Dwarf for 20 years they have measured Frame Dragging, an effect predicted by General Relativity, with unprecedented accuracy; and the value they got was entirely consistent with what Einstein said it should be.

Abstract

Radio pulsars in short-period eccentric binary orbits can be used to study both gravitational dynamics and binary evolution. The binary system containing PSR J1141–6545 includes a massive white dwarf (WD) companion that formed before the gravitationally bound young radio pulsar. We observed a temporal evolution of the orbital inclination of this pulsar that we infer is caused by a combination of a Newtonian quadrupole moment and Lense–Thirring (LT) precession of the orbit resulting from rapid rotation of the WD. LT precession, an effect of relativistic frame dragging, is a prediction of general relativity. This detection is consistent with an evolutionary scenario in which the WD accreted matter from the pulsar progenitor, spinning up the WD to a period of <200 seconds.

Frame dragging induced by a fast-rotating white dwarf in a binary pulsar system

John K Clark

[Lawrence Crowell]

I read from another source about this. The white dwarf star and neutron star have in their mutual orbit a form of frame dragging. This induces a precession on the neutron star, which is measured in the shifting phase of the pulsar signature. This is nature's form of what the Gravity-B probe did.

LC