The Thomas Precession; Conclusion

If there is a non-gravitational acceleration of the gyroscope, then there will be an additional precession, called the Thomas Precession. Examination of Eq. (54) shows immediately, upon comparing the first and last terms in Eq. (54), that this precession will be

$${\bf\Omega}_{{\rm Thomas}}= {1 \over 2 c^2} {\bf A} \times {\bf V}.$$ (66)

The usual Lense-Thirring Drag is usually throught of as a gravitomagnetic effect. It arises from rotation of the source mass, and gives additional contributions to the metric tensor space-time components. Within the present framework, there is nothing particularly new-the Lense-Thirring drag is still a gravitomagnetic effect.

Thus, all of the relativistic precession phenomena-Thomas Precession, Geodetic Precession, and Lense-Thirring Precession, are gravitomagnetic in quasi-inertial coordinates. That one can choose any frame of reference as a basis for description of phenomena is an extremely important property of general relativity, as expressed in the Principle of General Covariance.