Proving Einstein right using the most sensitive Earth rotation sensors ever made

General Relativity is indeed a theory of gravity and it attributes to the gravitational interaction a nature quite different from that of all other fundamental forces of nature. GR in fact expresses gravity as a geometrical property of a 4-dimensional manifold: the space-time. 

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Ring laser gyroscopes are, at present, the most precise sensors of absolute angular velocity. They are essential in estimating rotation rates relative to the local inertial frame in many contexts ranging from inertial guidance to angle metrology, from geodesy to geo- physics, as well to fundamental physics. 

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GP2, the prototype installed at INFN laboratories in Pisa, is the seed device for the next generation heterolitic active- stabilized RLs. It has been designed in order to gain a long term stability and accuracy of the scale factor, via a precise control of the systematic errors related to the fluctuation of the cavity geometry and the active medium parameters. In particular, it is dedicated to implement a length stabilization of the diagonal cavities using optical interferometric techniques.

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