GINGER

Sketch of the GINGER array assuming colocation of the three RLGs within Node B at the LNGS

The article “GINGER” is now published in the journal Mathematics and Mechanics of Complex Systems.

It was written by Carlo Altucci, Francesco Bajardi, Emilio Barchiesi, Andrea Basti, Nicolò Beverini, Thomas Braun, Giorgio Carelli, Salvatore Capozziello, Simone Castellano, Donatella Ciampini, Fabrizio Davì, Gaetano De Luca, Roberto Devoti, Rita Di Giovambattista, Giuseppe Di Somma, Giuseppe Di Stefano, Angela D. V. Di Virgilio, Daniela Famiani, Alberto Frepoli, Francesco Fuso, Ivan Giorgio, Aladino Govoni, Gaetano Lambiase, Enrico Maccioni, Paolo Marsili, Alessia Mercuri, Fabio Morsani, Antonello Ortolan, Alberto Porzio, Matteo Luca Ruggiero, Marco Tallini, Jay Tasson, Emilio Turco, and Raffaele Velotta.

The article outlines the scientific objectives, experimental scheme, and planned collaborations for the GINGER (Gyroscopes in general relativity) project, which brings together several scientific disciplines with the goal of building a ring laser gyroscope array (RLG), exploiting the Sagnac effect, to continuously measure, with a sensitivity better than pico-rad/s, a large bandwidth (about 1 kHz), and a high dynamic range, the absolute angular rate of rotation of the Earth. 

In particular, the authors addressed the feasibility of the apparatus with respect to the ambitious specifications listed, demonstrating how such an apparatus, which will be able to detect strong earthquakes, very weak geodesic signals, as well as general relativity effects such as Lense-Thirring and de Sitter, will help scientific advances in theoretical physics, geophysics and geodesy, among other scientific fields.