爱因斯坦的广义相对论预言了处于转动状态的质量会对其周围的时空产生拖拽的现象，这种现象被称作参考系拖拽（英文：Frame-dragging）或惯性系拖拽（英文：Inertial frame dragging）。因转动而产生的参考系拖拽的相应理论最早由奥地利物理学家约瑟夫·冷泽与汉斯·提尔苓于1918年通过广义相对论推导出，因此参考系拖拽也常常被叫做冷泽-提尔苓效应（英语：Lense-Thirring Effect）。冷泽与提尔苓预言物体的转动会导致其周围时空参考系的改变，从而使周围物体的位置和牛顿力学下的经典结果产生偏差。不过理论预言这种偏差将非常之小，大约只有几万亿分之一。想要在实验中观测到这种现象，需要对大质量的旋转物体（例如行星或恒星）使用高灵敏度的仪器进行探测，例如围绕地球公转的人造卫星轨道会因地球自转而产生细微的变化。更一般的，这种由加速质量而产生的引力场变化可以归结到引力磁学的研究领域。

Frame-dragging is an effect on spacetime, predicted by Einstein's general theory of relativity, that is due to non-static stationary distributions of mass–energy. A stationary field is one that is in a steady state, but the masses causing that field may be non-static, rotating for instance. The first frame-dragging effect was derived in 1918, in the framework of general relativity, by the Austrian physicists Josef Lense and Hans Thirring, and is also known as the Lense–Thirring effect. They predicted that the rotation of a massive object would distort the spacetime metric, making the orbit of a nearby test particle precess. This does not happen in Newtonian mechanics for which the gravitational field of a body depends only on its mass, not on its rotation. The Lense–Thirring effect is very small—about one part in a few trillion. To detect it, it is necessary to examine a very massive object, or build an instrument that is very sensitive. More generally, the subject of effects caused by mass–energy currents is known as gravitomagnetism, in analogy with classical electromagnetism.