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  • Featured in Physics

Quantum Sensing of Gravitational Frame Dragging with a Superfluid He4 Gyrometer

Kai-Isaak Ellers1,2,3,†, Marios Christodoulou4, K. C. Schwab5, and K. Birgitta Whaley2,3,*

  • *Contact author: whaley@berkeley.edu
  • †Contact author: kiellers@berkeley.edu

Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 121404 – Published 17 September, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/q3v9-rjm9

Abstract

We propose a laboratory-scale experiment to locally measure the general relativistic frame-dragging effect on Earth using the macroscopic quantum properties of a novel superfluid He4 single Josephson junction gyrometer. We derive the frame-dragging and related geodetic and Thomas effects in the superfluid gyrometer and present a procedure for their experimental measurement. We compute the expected thermal noise floor and find that very high sensitivity can be expected at millikelvin temperatures, where near-future Josephson junctions using nanoporous 2D materials are expected to operate. Assuming utilization of the lowest-mechanical-loss materials, we find a noise spectral density of 5×10−17  rads/s/Hz at 10 mK, which is sufficient to resolve the frame-dragging rate to 0.2% within one second of measurement, giving a rotational sensitivity of 1 revolution in 4 Byrs. This extreme sensitivity to rotation corresponds to a measurement of proper time differences as small as 10−35  s.

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

synopsis

Detecting How Earth Twists Spacetime

Published 17 September, 2026

A proposed lab-based quantum sensor could precisely measure within seconds the warping of spacetime caused by Earth’s rotation.

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