On Poincare gauge theory of gravity, its equations of motion, and Gravity Probe B

We discuss the structure of the Poincare gauge theory of gravity (PG) that can be considered as the standard theory of gravity with torsion. We reconfirm that torsion, in the context of PG, couples only to the elementary particle spin and under no circumstances to the orbital angular momentum of test particles. We conclude that, unfortunately, the investigations of Mao et al. (2007) and March et al. (2011)-who claimed a coupling of torsion to orbital angular momentum, in particular in the context of the Gravity Probe B (GPB) experiment-do not yield any information on torsion. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.