- De Sitter effect
In
astrophysics , the term De Sitter effect (named after the Dutch physicistWillem de Sitter ) has been applied to two unrelated phenomena.The De Sitter effect was first described by de Sitter in 1913 and used to support the
special theory of relativity against a competing 1908 theory byWalter Ritz that postulated a variablespeed of light . de Sitter showed that Ritz's theory predicted that the orbits of binary stars would appear more eccentric than consistent with experiment and with the laws ofmechanics . [cite journal | last = de Sitter | first = W | year = 1913 | title = Unknown | journal = Phokatische Zeitschrift | volume = 14 | pages = pp. 429, 1267]The second de Sitter effect was introduced in 1916 and arises in
general relativity ; it describes a particular secularprecession of astronomical orbits, equivalent to the rotation of theLaplace-Runge-Lenz vector . [cite journal | last = de Sitter | first = W | year = 1916 | title = On Einstein's Theory of Gravitation and its Astronomical Consequences | journal = Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc. | volume = 77 | pages = 155–184]History
Willem de Sitter was born in 1872. He studied Mathematics in Groningen and was obligated to take some classes in experimental physics . De Sitter went to the observatory of
Jacobus Kapteyn and during his research, he was invited for some work in Kaapstad.During his stay in Kaapstad, De Sitter began to like physics and decided to become an astronomer.
Together withAlbert Einstein he developed the De Sitter-universe, a simple model for an expanding universe.
Nowadays, people tend to say that De Sitter was, until his death in 1934, one of the few people who fully understood theGeneral theory of relativity .De Sitter precession
The De Sitter precession is very similar to the
Thomas precession . To derive the precession, assume the system is in a rotatingSchwarzschild metric .Using units in which c = 1.
We introduce a rotating coordinate system, with an angular velocity . This gives usIf we use this in the Schwarzschild metric, and assume that is a constant, we find
with . Now, the metric is in the
canonical form From this canonical form, we can easily determine the rotational rate of a gyroscope
We are at rest in our rotating coordinate system, so there is no acceleration, and thus . This leads to
From this, we can distill ω,
Since , the precession of the gyroscope relative to the rotating coordinate system is given by , with
the precession in the coordinate system at rest is given by:
With a first order
Taylor series we findReferences
Textbooks
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