Quantum Sensing of Gravitational Frame-Dragging with a Superfluid ⁴He Gyrometer

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 ⁴He 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 5times 10^-17 rads/s/sqrt{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.