标题： 利用LARES卫星检验广义相对论和引力物理 显示英文标题

标题： Testing General Relativity and gravitational physics using the LARES satellite

摘要： 宇宙加速膨胀的发现——这一现象被认为是由一种神秘的“暗能量”驱动，而这种暗能量构成了大部分宇宙——进一步激发了对检验爱因斯坦广义相对论的兴趣。 爱因斯坦理论的核心是小的、无结构的测试粒子的测地线运动。 根据物理背景的不同，恒星、行星或卫星的行为可以非常接近于一个测试粒子，因此使用测地线运动来计算行星轨道近日点的进动、双星脉冲星系统的动力学以及地球轨道卫星的动力学。 验证测地线运动是对广义相对论以及其他基本物理理论的重要检验。 基于最近发射的LARES卫星最初的几个月观测数据，它的轨道与广义相对论预测的测试粒子运动具有最好的一致性。 也就是说，在对其已知的非引力扰动建模后，LARES卫星的轨道显示出任何人工卫星中与测地线运动偏差最小的轨道。 因此，LARES型卫星可用于精确测量和引力及基础物理的实验测试。 仅仅通过几个月的观测，LARES在确定几个低阶地势系数（地球重力偏离球形的程度）时的波动范围比任何其他卫星或卫星组合的观测结果都要小。 显示英文摘要

摘要： The discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe, thought to be driven by a mysterious form of `dark energy' constituting most of the Universe, has further revived the interest in testing Einstein's theory of General Relativity. At the very foundation of Einstein's theory is the geodesic motion of a small, structureless test-particle. Depending on the physical context, a star, planet or satellite can behave very nearly like a test-particle, so geodesic motion is used to calculate the advance of the perihelion of a planet's orbit, the dynamics of a binary pulsar system and of an Earth orbiting satellite. Verifying geodesic motion is then a test of paramount importance to General Relativity and other theories of fundamental physics. On the basis of the first few months of observations of the recently launched satellite LARES, its orbit shows the best agreement of any satellite with the test-particle motion predicted by General Relativity. That is, after modelling its known non-gravitational perturbations, the LARES orbit shows the smallest deviations from geodesic motion of any artificial satellite. LARES-type satellites can thus be used for accurate measurements and for tests of gravitational and fundamental physics. Already with only a few months of observation, LARES provides smaller scatter in the determination of several low-degree geopotential coefficients (Earth gravitational deviations from sphericity) than available from observations of any other satellite or combination of satellites.