Precession Caused by Gravitational Waves
Résumé
We show that gravitational waves cause freely falling gyroscopes to precess relative to fixed distant stars, extending the stationary Lense-Thirring effect. The precession rate decays as the square of the inverse distance to the source and is proportional to a suitable Noether current for dual asymptotic symmetries at null infinity. Integrating the rate over time yields a net rotation—a “gyroscopic memory”—whose angle reproduces the known spin memory effect but also contains an extra contribution due to the generator of gravitational electric-magnetic duality. The angle’s order of magnitude for the first Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory signal is estimated to be near Earth, but the effect may be substantially larger for supermassive black hole mergers.