Measuring the Sun’s Angular Momentum Using the Gravitomagnetic Frequency Shift Effect

Abstract

We investigate the prospects for experimentally determining the Sun’s angular momentum by measuring the gravitomagnetic frequency shift of signals exchanged by two satellites in heliocentric orbits. When using modern optical clocks with stability of ∼10^–18, the accuracy of such an experiment can reach 5% after 5 years of data accumulation. This is comparable to the accuracy of determining the Sun’s angular momentum using techniques of helioseismology.