Gyromagnetic effects and the gravitomagnetic field

An experimental project aimed to assess the feasibility of a ground based experiment to detect the Lense-Thirring dragging of inertial frames by the rotating earth is presented. The experiment is based on the comparison of the local value of the gravitomagnetic field as measured by an inertial sensor to the value of the angular velocity of the earth resulting from VLBI observations. The emphasis of the paper is on the principle of operation, on the perspective sensitivity, and on the response to a general gravitomagnetic field of a new kind of solid state gyroscope called the gyromagnetic electron gyroscope.