A laser gyroscope system to detect the gravito-magnetic effect on Earth

Ring lasers are inertial sensors for angular velocity based on the Sagnac effect. In recent years they have reached a very high sensitivity and accuracy; the best performing one, the ring Laser G in Wettzell (Germany), a square ring with 16 m perimeter, has reached a sensitivity of 12prad/s very close to the shot noise limit inferred from ring-down time measurements. On this basis it is expected that an array of six square ring lasers of 36 m perimeter, can perform a 1% accuracy test for the measurement of the Lense-Thirring frame dragging after 2 years of integration time. Essential for this measurement is the comparison between the Earth angular velocity and orientation in space measured with the ring array and compared to the measurement series maintained by the International Earth Rotation and Reference System Service (IERS), which measures Earth Rotation and pole position with respect to remote quasars. It has been shown that the accuracy of G in Wettzell is limited by the low frequency motion of the near surface laboratory, which is of the order of several prad/s, roughly 100 times larger than the Lense-Thirring contribution. For this reason the entire experiment should be placed in a quite underground laboratory, where these perturbations are reduced. The feasibility to properly place such a device inside the GranSasso INFN National Laboratory has been investigated.