Gravitational torsion field is a force field acting on masses and
bodies in translational or rotational motion, which is the second component of
the gravitational field in the Lorentz-invariant
theory of gravitation and in the covariant theory of
gravitation. By its action
the torsion field is similar to magnetic field in electromagnetism (see Maxwell-like gravitational equations). The
term torsion field in this meaning was introduced by Sergey Fedosin in
1999. The torsion field dimension in the system of physical units SI is the
same as for
frequency, that is s-1.
Torsion field plays an important
role in the gravitational model of strong
interaction.
Contents·
1 Torsion field
in Lorentz-invariant theory of gravitation o 1.1 Heaviside's equations o
1.2 Rotating
particle in torsion field o 1.3 Gravitational vector potential ·
2 Torsion field
(gravitomagnetic field) in general theory of relativity ·
3 Effects
associated with torsion field · 4 Analogies with electrodynamics · 5 See also · 6 References ·
7 External links |
In Lorentz-invariant theory of gravitation (LITG) the
force of gravitation is considered as two-component force, which depends on the
gravitational field strength
(gravitational acceleration) and gravitational torsion field
:
where
and
are the mass and velocity of a body
moving in gravitational field.
The
torsion field in LITG up to a
constant factor corresponds to the strength of so-called gravitomagnetic field
in general relativity (GTR). The
cause of emergence of the torsion field
in LITG is the necessity to comply with the principle of Lorentz covariance for
gravitational field potentials in inertial reference frames. [1]
As
the gravitational field strength, the torsion field contributes to gravitational tensor, gravitational stress-energy tensor, the energy density of gravitational
field
where is the speed of light,
is
the gravitational constant,
as
well as to the vector of energy flux
density of gravitational field or Heaviside
vector:
and Lagrangian
for a particle in gravitational field.
Heaviside's
equations
Torsion field is included in three of the four
differential Heaviside's equations:
where:
·
is the mass current density,
·
is the moving mass density,
·
is the velocity of the mass flux,
which creates the gravitational field and torsion field.
From
the first equation it follows, that the torsion field has no sources, and
hence, the torsion field lines are always closed as in case of magnetic field.
According to the second equation, the torsion field is produced by the motion
of matter and the change in time of gravitational field strength. The third
equation implies effect of gravitational
induction.
According to LITG, the gravitational field strength and
torsion field
define
the components of real physical gravitational force, which can be substantiated
at the quantum level like electromagnetic force. The torsion field
occurs whenever there is any movement of mass. Since any motion can be divided
into two parts – the rotational and translational, respectively, then we can
talk about two kinds of torsion field. Torsion field outside the rotating
sphere with angular momentum
has a dipole form: [2]
The presence of 1/2 in the formula for reflects the fact that the
gravitational moment of axisymmetric body is equal to the half of its angular
momentum. In case of rectilinear motion of a body, the torsion field equals:
where is velocity of the body,
is the gravitational field strength
of the body at the point where the torsion field
is determined, and the
strength
is taken in view of propagation
delay of gravitational perturbation.
In
general case, the torsion field of
arbitrarily moving point mass can be expressed through gravitational field
strength produced by it:
where is the unit vector, directed from
the point mass to the point where the torsion field is determined, taken at earlier time (see retarded time).
Rotating
particle in torsion field
The formula for the moment of force acting on a
rotating particle with the spin in torsion field
, is written as follows:
Since
the particle is a top with the spin , then in the presence
of the moment of forces
the particle would precess along
the direction of the field
. This follows from the
equation of rotational motion:
Since
the moment of forces is perpendicular to the spin
and the torsion
, then the same is true
for the increment of the spin
during the time
. Perpendicularity of
and
leads to precession of the spin of
the particle at angular velocity
around
direction of
. The last equality
follows from the fact that
,
and the quantity
, where
is the angle between
and
, and the increment of the angle
is measured from the
projection of the vector
on the plane perpendicular to the
vector
up to the projection of the vector
on this plane.
In
the presence of the non-uniform torsion field the particle with the spin will be dragged to the region of
the stronger field. From the equations of LITG the expression follows for such
force:
The
mechanical energy of the particle with the spin in torsion field will be equal
to:
Torsion
field and gravitational field strength are closely related to the potentials of
the field and expressed by the formulas:
where
is the scalar potential,
– the vector potential
of gravitational field.
The
significance of potentials is in the fact that if a test particle of unit mass is
placed in an external gravitational field, then will set the additional energy of
such particle due to action of the field, and
is a part of the generalized
momentum of the particle.[3] The vector potential of gravitational field
contributes to the torsion field and gravitational field strength, but the
torsion field is not directly dependent on the scalar potential. When equations
are wrote in four-dimensional form, field potentials form the gravitational four-potential
, and gravitational tensor, which consists of
and
is obtained as the four-curl of
.
In contrast to Newtonian mechanics, in the general theory of relativity (GTR), the motion of test particle
(and the rate of clock) in gravitational field depends on whether the body, the
source of the field, rotates or not. The influence of rotation affects even in
the case when distribution of masses in the source in its reference frame does
not change with time (for example, there is cylindrical symmetry with respect
to the axis of rotation). Gravitomagnetic effects in weak fields are extremely
small. In a weak gravitational field and at low velocities of particles we can
consider separately gravitomagnetic and gravitational forces acting on the test
particles, and the strength of gravitomagnetic field and the gravitomagnetic
force are described by the equations similar in the form to corresponding
equations of electromagnetism.
Let us consider the motion of a test particle in the
vicinity of a rotating spherically symmetric body with the mass and the angular momentum
. If the particle with
the mass
is moving at the velocity
(
is the speed of light),
then the particle would be influenced, in addition to the gravitational force,
by the gravitomagnetic force, directed (like the Lorentz force)
perpendicular to both the velocity and the strength of the gravitomagnetic
field
. In the CGS system of physical units we shall
have:
And
if the rotating mass is located at the origin of coordinates and is the radius vector to the observation
point, the strength of the gravitomagnetic field at this point is: [4]
where
is the gravitational constant.
The
last formula coincides (except for the coefficient) with the similar formula
for the field of magnetic dipole with the magnetic
dipole moment equal to . In GTR gravitation is
not an independent physical force. Gravitation in GTR is rather reduced to the curvature
of spacetime and is treated as a geometric effect, and is equated to the metric
field. [5][6] The same
geometric meaning is obtained by the gravitomagnetic field
.
In contrast
to this, in LITG it is assumed that the force of torsion field arises already in Minkowski
space, as a magnetic force. In GTR the equivalent gravitomagnetic force is
considered in the Riemannian space, where gravitation has tensor, not vector
character. Therefore, the spin of gravitons in GTR is assumed twice greater
than in the vector theory of LITG. Hence, in a number of works on gravitoelectromagnetism in GTR, in the expressions
for the force and the gravitomagnetic field additional numerical factors appear
in comparison with the expressions for the force and torsion field in LITG. For
rectilinear motion of bodies the formulas for torsion field in LITG and in GTR
coincide. [7]
In the case of strong fields
and relativistic velocities, the torsion field cannot be considered separately from
the gravitational field, since dependence of metric tensor on the magnitude of
fields begins to have an effect, and the field equations become interconnected
and nonlinear.. In this case LITG turns into the covariant theory of gravitation (CTG). [8] In weak fields as separate effects of the
torsion field the following effects are considered:
·
Dragging of inertial
reference frames. This is precession of the spin and orbital moments of test
particle near the rotating massive body. In the SI system of physical units the
angular velocity of precession is equal to and is directed against the
direction of torsion field
.
·
The orbital Lense-Thirring effect, which leads to precession, that is to
the rotation of the normal of the elliptical orbit of the particle relative to
the vector of gravitational torsion field of the rotating body. This effect is
vectorially added to the standard general relativistic precession of the
pericenter (43" per century for Mercury), which does not depend on the
rotation of the central body. The orbital Lense-Thirring precession was first
measured for the satellites LAGEOS and LAGEOS II.
·
The spin Lense-Thirring effect (or the Schiff precession) is expressed
in the precession of gyroscope, located near the rotating body. If we consider
the gyroscope as a spinning top, then the axis of this top will periodically
change its direction in space with the precession frequency. Checking this
precession was one of the goals of the experiment of Gravity Probe B, conducted by NASA in
2005-2007 on the satellite with the orbit passing through the pole of the
Earth. [9] However, the
measurement errors were too large, in the range of 256-128%, impeding the
measurements. [10] The
experimental measurement of the Schiff precession is the test for the theories
of GTR and CTG with respect to the formulas for the precession. At the Earth’s
pole the angular velocity of precession is directed similarly to the spin
of the Earth
, and from CTG it
follows:
where is distance from the Earth’s center
to the gyroscope in the orbit near the pole.
The
same formula for angular velocity of precession is valid in general relativity,
but averaged over the whole orbit. [11] For
the there is the value 0.0409 arc seconds per year (here
km for the satellite
Gravity Probe B,
is the Earth's radius, the altitude
of the satellite is 640 km).
·
The geodetic precession (de Sitter effect) occurs in parallel transport
of the angular momentum vector in curved spacetime. For the Earth-Moon system,
moving in the field of the Sun, the geodetic precession is 1.9" per
century; the precise astrometric measurements revealed this effect, which
coincided with the predicted within the error range of 1 %. The geodetic
precession of gyroscopes on the satellite Gravity Probe B coincided with the
predicted value (the rotation of the axis by 6.606 arc seconds per year in the
plane of the satellite’s orbit) with the accuracy more than 1 %. The formula
for the de Sitter precession in GTR has the form: [12]
where is velocity of motion of the
gyroscope in the orbit of the Earth,
is the mass of the
Earth,
is the orbital angular velocity of the
gyroscope’s rotation.
The
angular velocity of geodetic precession is perpendicular to velocity of
gyroscope and to acceleration of Earth's gravitation, coinciding with the
direction of the orbital angular velocity of rotation. Therefore, at the pole
of the Earth the geodetic precession is perpendicular to the spin precession in
the Schiff effect, the angular velocity of which is directed along the axis of
the Earth’s rotation.
·
The gravitomagnetic time shift. In the weak fields (for example, near
the Earth) this effect is masked by the standard special and general
relativistic effects of the change of the rate of clock and is far beyond the
current accuracy of experiments.
Since the gravitational torsion field is similar to
the magnetic field in electrodynamics, and the angular momentum of a particle
is similar to dipole magnetic moment, then according to LITG it allows us to
interpret the Lense-Thirring effect as
an example of rotation of
electrically charged test particle around a body attracting it, if this body
has the dipole magnetic moment. Due to the law of conservation of the orbital
angular momentum, the orbital plane of the particle tends not to change its
position in space. However, during the rotation of the particle around the
body, the charge of the particle will be influenced by the additional Lorentz
force from the magnetic field of the body, which is perpendicular to the
particle velocity. In the stationary state, the velocity and the orbital
angular momentum of the particle will not change in the magnitude, but the
orbit of the rotating particle and direction of its orbital angular momentum
will precess relative to the axis of dipole magnetic moment of the body, as in
orbital Lense-Thirring effect.
If the particle has its proper magnetic moment and
spin, then there will be interaction of magnetic moments of the particle and
the body. The energy of this interaction depends on the mutual orientation of
magnetic moments. The magnetic field of the body will tend to establish the
magnetic moment of particle in direction of the field, but the particle has the
spin, tending to preserve its direction in space. Therefore there will be
precession of the particle’s spin relative to the axis of dipole magnetic moment
of the body, similar to the Schiff effect.
Another effect is associated with the orbital motion
of a particle with magnetic moment and spin relative to a charged body. In the
rest frame of the center of momentum
of the particle, the particle itself is rotating, and the body is rotating
around this particle. The orbital rotation of charged body creates the magnetic
field acting on magnetic moment of the particle. This leads to the precession
of the magnetic moment and the spin of the particle relative to magnetic field
from the orbital rotation of the body. Now we shall replace the magnetic field
by the torsion of the gravitational field, and the charges by masses. Then it
turns out that the angular velocity of the spin precession of the particle
would be one third of the angular velocity of geodetic precession (the other
two thirds arise from the curvature of spacetime around the body due to
changing of space time metric).
·
Gravitational field strength
·
Maxwell-like gravitational equations
·
Lorentz-invariant theory of gravitation
·
Covariant theory of gravitation
·
Gravitational stress-energy tensor
·
Magnetic field
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