Related papers: A speech for the luminiferous ether
Gravitation might make a preferred frame appear, and with it a clear space/time separation--the latter being, a priori, needed by quantum mechanics (QM) in curved space-time. Several models of gravitation with an ether are discussed: they…
A self-consistent consideration of the Lienard-Wiechert solition is given including its heuristic deduction, which involves a future light cone (thus the lightlike propagation of information from an arbitrarily moving pointlike charge), and…
Theories of low-energy Lorentz violation by a fixed-norm "aether" vector field with two-derivative kinetic terms have a globally bounded Hamiltonian and are perturbatively stable only if the vector is timelike and the kinetic term in the…
A laser diffraction experiment was conducted to study light propagation in air. The experiment is easy to reproduce and it is based on simple optical principles. Two optical sensors (segmented photo-diodes) are used for measuring the…
The coherent reflectivity of a dense, relativistic, ultra-thin electron layer is derived analytically for an obliquely incident probe beam. Results are obtained by two-fold Lorentz transformation. For the analytical treatment, a plane…
The trajectory of light rays propagating through a nonuniformly moving anisotropic medium is determined by considering the Fresnel drag experienced by the wave at each point along the ray. By showing that symmetries in the velocity field…
We show that that vector field-based models of the ether generically do not have a Hamiltonian that is bounded from below in a flat spacetime. We also demonstrate that these models possess multiple light cones in flat or curved spacetime,…
We examine a dielectric medium supporting a magnetic current in connection with optical properties and energy propagation. The dispersion relations, propagating modes, and some optical effects are examined for isotropic and anisotropic…
A corollary of general relativity that the average velocity of light between two points in a gravitational field is anisotropic has been overlooked. It is shown that this anisotropy can be probed by an experiment which constitutes another…
Electromagnetic waves carry the Abraham momentum, whose density is given by p_EM = S(r,t)/c^2. Here S(r,t) = E(r,t)\timesH(r,t) is the Poynting vector at point r in space and instant t in time, E and H are the local electromagnetic fields,…
In principle, by accepting the idea of a non-zero vacuum energy, the physical vacuum of present particle physics might represent a preferred reference frame. By treating this quantum vacuum as a relativistic medium, the non-zero…
It is pointed out that the previous energy-momentum tensors of Minkowski and Abraham for the electromagnetic field in continuous media are based on a covariant formulation which does not reflect a symmetry inherent to the system. Instead,…
That the speed of light is a universal constant is a logical consequence of Maxwell's equations. Here we show the converse is also true. Electromagnetism (EM) and electrodynamics (ED), in all details, can be derived from two simple…
As we approach the 125th anniversary of the Michelson-Morley experiment in 2012, we review experiments that test the isotropy of the speed of light. Previous measurements are categorized into one-way (single-trip) and two-way (round-trip…
The theoretical predictions, derived from the Lorentz and the Tangherlini transformations, for the one-way speed of any physical entity are confronted with the corresponding expressions for the one-way measured speed obtained from a…
A moving dielectric appears to light as an effective gravitational field. At low flow velocities the dielectric acts on light in the same way as a magnetic field acts on a charged matter wave. We develop in detail the geometrical optics of…
The so-called Einstein-Aether theory is General Relativity coupled (at second derivative order) to a dynamical unit time-like vector field (the aether). It is a Lorentz-violating theory, and gained much attention in the recent years. In the…
In an earlier paper the author expounded an interferometer scheme to communicate classical data over an entangled quantum channel. We return to this concept to show that the laws of Quantum Mechanics are not violated and that the device is…
We evaluated the emission of a low-mass particle in the system (atomic) transition for the case when the particle Lorentz factor is $10^{18}$ and found that the angular distribution of emission in the laboratory inertial system is strongly…
The shortening of bodies in the direction of motion, Lorentz contraction, follows from the solution of Maxwell's equations. Moving light clocks will tick slower than those at rest because the speed of light does not depend on a source of…