Related papers: Possible Experiments to test Einstein's Special Re…
In this contribution we assess the current experimental status of Special and General Relativity. Particular emphasis is put on putative extensions of these theories and on how these could be detected experimentally.
General Relativity is today the best theory of gravity addressing a wide range of phenomena. Our understanding of physical laws, from cosmology to local scales, cannot be properly formulated without taking into account it. It is based on…
In this paper I investigate the possibility to test Einstein's equations with observations of cosmological large scale structure. I first show that we have not tested the equations in observations concerning only the homogeneous and…
Was Einstein wrong? This paper provides a detailed technical review of Einstein's special and general relativity from an astrophysical perspective, including the historical development of the theories, experimental tests, modern…
Recent experiments have successfully tested Einstein's general theory of relativity to remarkable precision. We discuss recent progress in the tests of relativistic gravity in the solar system and present motivations for the new generation…
Searches for anisotropies due to Earth's motion relative to a preferred frame -- modern versions of the Michelson-Morley experiment -- provide precise verifications of special relativity. We describe other tests, independent of this motion,…
Does relativistic gravity provide arguments against the existence of a preferred frame? Our answer is negative. We define a viable theory of gravity with preferred frame. In this theory, the EEP holds exactly, and the Einstein equations of…
Lorentz symmetry is the fundamental symmetry of Einstein's theory of Special Relativity and has been tested to great precision. Nevertheless, the possibility remains that it is violated at the Planck scale, as predicted by some theories of…
Up to now, Einstein's general theory of relativity has passed all experimental tests. But yet we know that it is not a fundamental theory and that it is incompatible with quantum theory. While several extended and improved gravitational…
Criteria for defining errors of a physical theory are formulated. It is shown that the Special Theory of Relativity (STR) has a solid mathematical basis. An enormous amount of experiments carried out in particle physics use beams of…
We exposed between the years 2000 to 2011 a very general theory of Ether, giving an interpretation of all the main experiments connected to Special and General Relativity and Cosmology. This theory of Ether was most of time even not…
The nature of gravity is fundamental to our understanding of our own solar system, the galaxy and the structure and evolution of the Universe. Einstein's general theory of relativity is the standard model that is used for almost ninety…
The confrontation between Einstein's gravitation theory and experimental results, notably binary pulsar data, is summarized and its significance discussed. Experiment and theory agree at the 10^{-3} level. All the basic structures of…
The recent discovery of "dark energy" has challenged Einstein's general theory of relativity as a complete model for our macroscopic universe. From a theoretical view, the challenge is even stronger: general relativity clearly does not…
The possibility of a modification of special relativity with an invariant energy scale playing the role of a minimum energy is explored. Consistency with the equivalence of different inertial frames is obtained by an appropriate choice of a…
The concepts of primary and reciprocal experiments and base and travelling frames in special relativity are concisely described and applied to several different space-time experiments. These include Einstein's train/embankment thought…
The most simple observed cases of gravitational lensing of distant quasars and galaxies by galaxies and clusters of galaxies are used to test Einstein's theory of General Relativity and Newtonian Gravity over galactic and intergalactic…
We look afresh at the deduction of the "Lorentz contraction" of a "rod" from the Lorentz transformation equations of the special theory of relativity. We show that under special conditions, which include acceleration of the "rod", length…
One of the most difficult questions in present-day physics concerns a fundamental theory of space, time, and matter that incorporates a consistent quantum description of gravity. There are various theoretical approaches to such a…
Models with extra space-time dimensions produce, tipically, a 4D effective theory whose vacuum is not exactly Lorentz invariant but can be considered a physical medium whose refractive index is determined by the gravitational field. This…