General Relativity and John Archibald Wheeler

Astrophysics and Space Science Library

EDITORIAL BOARD

ChairmanW. B. BURTON, National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Charlottesville, Virginia,U.S.A. (bburton@nrao.edu); University of Leiden, The Netherlands(burton@strw.leidenuniv.nl)

F. BERTOLA, University of Padua, ItalyJ. P. CASSINELLI, University of Wisconsin, Madison, U.S.A.C. J. CESARSKY, European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, GermanyP. EHRENFREUND, Leiden University, The NetherlandsO. ENGVOLD, University of Oslo, NorwayA. HECK, Strasbourg Astronomical Observatory, FranceE. P. J. VAN DEN HEUVEL, University of Amsterdam, The NetherlandsV. M. KASPI, McGill University, Montreal, CanadaJ. M. E. KUIJPERS, University of Nijmegen, The NetherlandsH. VAN DER LAAN, University of Utrecht, The NetherlandsP. G. MURDIN, Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge, UKF. PACINI, Istituto Astronomia Arcetri, Firenze, ItalyV. RADHAKRISHNAN, Raman Research Institute, Bangalore, IndiaB. V. SOMOV, Astronomical Institute, Moscow State University, RussiaR. A. SUNYAEV, Space Research Institute, Moscow, Russia

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Ignazio Ciufolini • Richard A. MatznerEditors

General Relativity andJohn Archibald Wheeler

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EditorsIgnazio CiufoliniUniversità del SalentoDipto. Ingegneriadell’InnovazioneVia per Monteroni73100 LecceItalyignazio.ciufolini@unile.it

Richard A. MatznerUniversity of Texas, AustinDept. PhysicsCenter for RelativityAustin TX 78712-1081USAmatzner2@physics.utexas.edu

ISSN 0067-0057ISBN 978-90-481-3734-3 e-ISBN 978-90-481-3735-0DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-3735-0Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York

Library of Congress Control Number: 2010930053

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John Archibald Wheeler (seated, first on the left) at the 1970 Clifford Centennial Meeting atthe Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton. In the picture can be recognized, among others,Nicola Cabibbo, Robert Dicke, Eugene Wigner, Stephen Hawking, Brandon Carter, FreemanDyson, Cecile Dewitt, Charles Misner and Tullio Regge

John Archibald Wheeler in his office at the University of Texas at Austin in 1985. Left to right,Arkady Kheyfets, William Wootters, Ignazio Ciufolini, seated, with a model showing the use of thenodes of two LAGEOS satellites to measure frame-dragging, John Archibald Wheeler, WolfgangSchleich, Philip Candelas, Roberto Bruno and Warner Miller

John Archibald Wheeler at Princeton Univesity in 1990. Left to right, Eugene P. Wigner, recipientof the 1990 Eugene P. Wigner Reactor Physicist Award, Ignazio Ciufolini and John ArchibaldWheeler

We dedicate this book to John ArchibaldWheeler, our mentor and teacher

Contents

Introduction to General Relativity and John ArchibaldWheeler. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Ignazio Ciufolini and Richard Matzner

Part I John Archibald Wheeler and General Relativity

John Wheeler and the Recertification of General Relativityas True Physics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Charles W. Misner

John Archibald Wheeler: A Few Highlightsof His Contributions to Physics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29Kip S. Thorne and Wojciech H. Zurek

Wheeler Wormholes and the Modern Astrophysics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39Igor D. Novikov, N.S. Kardashev, and A.A. Shatskiy

Part II Foundations and Tests of General Relativity

Unified Form of the Initial Value Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59James W. York

The Confrontation Between General Relativityand Experiment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73Clifford M. Will

Measurements of Space Curvature by Solar Mass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95John D. Anderson and Eunice L. Lau

Modern Cosmology: Early and Late Universe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .109Vladimir Nikolaevich Lukash

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Part III Gravitational Waves

Introduction to Gravitational Waves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .123Richard Matzner

Discovering Relic Gravitational Waves in Cosmic MicrowaveBackground Radiation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .151Leonid P. Grishchuk

Status of Gravitational Wave Detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .201Adalberto Giazotto

Search for Gravitational Waves with Resonant Detectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .269Guido Pizzella

Gravitational Fields with 2-Dimensional Killing Leavesand the Gravitational Interaction of Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .297Gaetano Vilasi

Part IV Frame Dragging and Gravitomagnetism

Rotation and Spin in Physics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .325Robert F. O’Connell

The Gravitomagnetic Influence on Earth-Orbiting Spacecraftsand on the Lunar Orbit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .337Sergei M. Kopeikin

Quasi-inertial Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .345Neil Ashby

Gravitomagnetism and Its Measurement with Laser Rangingto the LAGEOS Satellites and GRACE Earth Gravity Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .371Ignazio Ciufolini, Erricos C. Pavlis, John Ries, Rolf Koenig,Giampiero Sindoni, Antonio Paolozzi, and Hans Newmayer

The Relativity Mission Gravity Probe B, Testing Einstein’sUniverse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .435Saps Buchman for the GP-B Collaboration

The LARES Space Experiment: LARES Orbit, Error Analysisand Satellite Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .467Ignazio Ciufolini, Antonio Paolozzi, Erricos Pavlis, John Ries,Rolf Koenig, Richard Matzner, and Giampiero Sindoni

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The History of the So-Called Lense–Thirring Effect,and of Related Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .493Herbert Pfister

Part V Miscellaneous

Atom Interferometers and Optical Clocks: New QuantumSensors Based on Ultracold Atoms for Gravitational Testsin Earth Laboratories and in Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .507Guglielmo M. Tino

The York Map and the Role of Non-inertial Framesin the Geometrical View of the Gravitational Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .517Luca Lusanna

Erratum.......................................................................................................533

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .535

Acknowledgment

We gratefully acknowledge the support and encouragement of Antonino Zichichiand the support of the Ettore Majorana Foundation and Centre for Scientific Culture(EMFCSC) of Erice, Sicily, during the First International School of AstrophysicalRelativity “John Archibald Wheeler”. We especially thank each author of “Gen-eral Relativity and John Archibald Wheeler” and Giampiero Sindoni for his help inediting this book. Finally, we express our appreciation to Loreta, Svetlana, Sirio andLeonardo Ciufolini, for their patience in the completion of this work.

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