Dragging of Inertial Frames, Fundamental Physics and Satellite Laser Ranging

Cosmological observations have stimulated the implementation of new tests of Einstein’s gravitational theory and of other theories of fundamental physics. In this paper, we first describe the general relativistic phenomenon of dragging of inertial frames, or frame-dragging, and its tests made by the LAGEOS (LAser GEOdynamics Satellite) satellites and by the dedicated Gravity Probe B space mission. We also present a test of String Theories of Chern–Simons type carried out using the LAGEOS frame-dragging tests. We then describe the LARES space experiment. The LAser RElativity Satellite, LARES, was successfully launched in February 2012 to improve the accuracy in the measurement of frame-dragging; it will also improve the previous tests of String Theories of Chern–Simons type. Then, we show that, according to the first period of orbital analyses, the LARES satellite has the closest behaviour to that of a test particle and its orbit approximates the geodesic motion of General Relativity better than any other artificial satellite. Finally, we report the results of detailed studies and extensive Monte Carlo simulations of the LARES space experiment showing an accuracy of a few percent in the future LARES measurements of frame-dragging.