title: A test of general relativity using the LARES and LAGEOS satellites and a GRACE Earth gravity model: Measurement of Earth's dragging of inertial frames.
abstract: We present a test of general relativity, the measurement of the Earth's dragging of inertial frames. Our result is obtained using about 3.5 years of laser-ranged observations of the LARES, LAGEOS, and LAGEOS 2 laser-ranged satellites together with the Earth gravity field model GGM05S produced by the space geodesy mission GRACE. We measure [Formula: see text], where [Formula: see text] is the Earth's dragging of inertial frames normalized to its general relativity value, 0.002 is the 1-sigma formal error and 0.05 is our preliminary estimate of systematic error mainly due to the uncertainties in the Earth gravity model GGM05S. Our result is in agreement with the prediction of general relativity.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento Ingegneria dell'Innovazione, Università del Salento, Lecce, Italy.|Museo della fisica e Centro studi e ricerche Enrico Fermi, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Ignazio
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Ciufolini
authors.affiliation: Museo della fisica e Centro studi e ricerche Enrico Fermi, Rome, Italy.|Scuola di Ingegneria Aerospaziale, Sapienza Università di Roma, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Paolozzi
authors.affiliation: Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology (JCET), University of Maryland, Baltimore County, USA.
authors.forename: Erricos C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Pavlis
authors.affiliation: Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Potsdam, Germany.
authors.forename: Rolf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Koenig
authors.affiliation: Center for Space Research, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, USA.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ries
authors.affiliation: Center for Cosmology and Astrophysics, Alikhanian National Laboratory and Yerevan State University, Yerevan, Armenia.
authors.forename: Vahe
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Gurzadyan
authors.affiliation: Theory Center, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, USA.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Matzner
authors.affiliation: Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Roger
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Penrose
authors.affiliation: DIAEE, Sapienza Università di Roma, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Giampiero
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sindoni
authors.affiliation: Museo della fisica e Centro studi e ricerche Enrico Fermi, Rome, Italy.|Scuola di Ingegneria Aerospaziale, Sapienza Università di Roma, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Paris
authors.affiliation: Center for Cosmology and Astrophysics, Alikhanian National Laboratory and Yerevan State University, Yerevan, Armenia.
authors.forename: Harutyun
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Khachatryan
authors.affiliation: Center for Cosmology and Astrophysics, Alikhanian National Laboratory and Yerevan State University, Yerevan, Armenia.
authors.forename: Sergey
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mirzoyan