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NASA's Gravity Probe B: patch effects or quantum gravitational effects?

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Posted by: David Brown

Gravity is a consequence of M-theory, which is the only possible unified theory. — Stephen Hawking
There are many heroes in a mission like this. — Francis Everitt, Principal Investigator for NASA’s Gravity Probe B (GP-B) mission
http://einstein.stanford.edu/Media/...torm-flash.html Everitt’s May 2006 lecture on GP-B
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Everitt
NASA’s Gravity Probe B mission used 4 nearly perfect gyroscopes to test 2 predictions of Einstein’s general relativity theory; the predictions were modeled by a formula derived by Leonard Schiff. The geodesic effect due to curved spacetime and the frame-dragging effect due to torques from planet Earth’s gravitational waves were verified by the GP-B mission. However, there were two surprises due to what the GP-B science team claimed to have determined to be “electrostatic patch effects” that caused misalignment torques in the gyroscopes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_Probe_B
HYPOTHESIS: The unexplained torques on the GP-B gyroscopes are not “misalignment torques” but instead are highly accurate evidence that M-theory is empirically valid. Under the assumption that Newton’s second law of motion is accurate for non-relativistic velocities to an accuracy of more than 1 part in a million for gravitational accelerations, the most likely explanation for the unexplained torques is that electrostatic patches caused systematic malfunctions in the GP-B gyroscopes. The GP-B scientists seem to have assumed for the purposes of gyroscopic calibrations that Newton’s second law of motion is 100% accurate at non-relativistic velocities. However, according to Milgrom’s Law, which is a fact of observational astronomy, there is some likelihood that Newton’s second law is significantly inaccurate at non-relativistic velocities under low gravitational accelerations. M-theory predicts a quantum gravitational correction to general relativity theory, and the modified field equations yield Milgrom’s Law as an approximation. According to my theory, M-theory predicts surprising torques to gyroscopes that are in the range of accuracy of the GP-B gyroscopes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modifi...tonian_dynamics
I now have two physical interpretations of M-theory, both of which predict that the -1/2 in the standard form of Einstein’s field equations should be replaced by -1/2 + dark-matter-compensation-constant. This constant is approximately sqrt(15) * 10**-5. In Seiberg-Witten M-theory with neutralino physics, dark matter in the form of neutralinos might appear as an apparent, but not real, failure of Einstein’s field equations. In my theory of modified M-theory with Wolfram’s mobile automaton, the name “dark-matter-compensation-constant” would be inappropriate. (See “Dark matter: why should Rañada and Milgrom win the Nobel prize?” at nks forum applied nks.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-theory
I conjecture that modified M-theory with Wolfram’s automaton is the limit of Seiberg-Witten M-theory with neutralino physics as the neutralino mass approaches zero; therefore, the validity of “A New Kind of Science” Chapter 9 might be closely intertwined with the validity of M-theory.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_New_Kind_of_Science
If the GP-B science team is basically correct about the electrostatic patches, then the GP-B findings would be a strong argument against both my physical interpretations of M-theory — although in Seiberg-Witten M-theory with neutralino physics, the modification with the dark-matter-compensation-constant might be a somewhat crude approximation. However, the Rañada-Milgrom evidence leads me to believe that the GP-B science team is wrong and I am correct about the unexplained torques.
According to the Gravity Probe B website, “June 11, 2007 — Two Surprises and Their Underlying Causes
TIME-VARYING POLHODE MOTION IN THE GYRO MOTORS
The gyroscope’s polhode motion is akin to the common “wobble” seen on a poorly thrown (American) football, though it shows up in a much different form for the ultra-spherical GP-B gyroscopes. While it was expected that this wobble would exhibit a constant pattern over the mission, it was found to slowly change due to minute energy dissipation in the spinning gyro rotors caused by interactions of electrostatic patches on the rotor’s surfaces and patches on the metallic surfaces inside the housings. The polhode wobble complicates the measurement of the relativity effects by putting a time-varying wobble signal into the data. …
CLASSICAL MISALIGNMENT TORQUES ON THE GYROS
After months of research and analysis, our GP-B science team has determined that electrostatic patches are also the cause of the small torques we have observed on the gyroscopes when the spacecraft’s axis of symmetry is not aligned with the gyroscopic spin axes. Torques cause the spin axis of a gyroscope to change orientation, and in certain circumstances, this effect can look like the relativity signal GP-B measures. Fortunately this change in gyro spin axis orientation due to these torques has a precise geometrical relationship to the gyro spin/vehicle symmetry axis, and thus effects of these so-called misalignment torques can be removed from the data without directly affecting the relativity measurement. …
PATCH EFFECTS — THE UNDERLYING CAUSE OF BOTH SURPRISES
Perhaps the greatest and most important challenge embraced by the GP-B team during the data analysis period has been to determine the underlying causes of both the unexpectedly changing polholde paths in the GP-B gyros and the misalignment torques. …
We were well aware of the possible ramifications of electrostatic patches on the gyro rotors prior prior to launch, and we made a thorough investigation of them prior to launch. In fact, a GP-B post-doctoral student carefully studied the effects of the electrostatic patches on the gyro rotors and concluded that if the niobium coatings produced just two large electrostatic patches located at opposite poles of the rotors, this would create a significant, classical torque problem in our gyros. To address this issue and determine the status of the patches, we performed two types of tests: 1) a visual inspection, and 2) a laboratory measure of the size and magnitude of the patches. …
Thus, once the spacecraft was in orbit and we began observing the changing polhode periods of the gyros and the misalignment torques, we did not initially suspect that patch effects might be the underlying cause. However, having eliminated other causes through all of the tests and calibrations performed during the mission, we have determined that patch effects are, indeed, the underlying causes of our two surprises. …”
http://einstein.stanford.edu/highli..._surprises.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polhode
Why should the unexplained torques, if they are misalignment torques, cause changes in the gyro spin axis orientation that have “a precise geometrical relationship to the gyro spin/vehicle symmetry axis”? In my theory, Einstein’s gravitational redshift has an extremely small, systematic increase, but why should misalignment torques cause a precise, systematic distortion leading to a predictable geometrical relation? Is quantum gravitational theory a more likely explanation for the surprising torques than a lucky form of misalignment that allowed good data to be derived from unexpected electrostatic patch effects?




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