1983.01.24 - stefan marinov - the interrupted rotating disc experiment

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J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 16 1983) 1885-1888. Printed in Gr eat Britain

The interrupted ‘rotating disc’ experiment

Stefan Marinovf

Laboratory for Fun dam ental Physical Problems , Sofia, Bulgaria

Received 2 August 19 82, in final form 24 January 19 83

Abstract. Realising a mo dification of the historical Harress-Sagnac exp erim ent, we estab -

lish that the velocity of light along the ch ord of a rotating disc is direction depen den t.

According to o ur absolute space-time theory (Marinov 1 97 7, 1981 a), the velocity of

light with respect t o a f ram e moving a t velocity v in absolute space, if measured with

th e hel p of a clock which rests in this fra m e, is called th e p ro pe r relative light velocity

and is

(1)b = c / ( l + U cos 8’/c),

where 8’ is the angle between the velocity v and the direction of light propagation

me asure d w ith respec t to the m oving fram e; c is the velocity of light with respect t oabsolute space measured on a clock which rests in absolute space, or the ‘to-and-fro’

velocity in any ine rtial fram e measu red on a clock attached to this fram e.

In th e historical H arress-Sagnac experime nt (called also the ‘rotating disc’ experi-

ment) two photons (two light pulses) which fly together are separated by a semi-

tran spa ren t m irror. O ne of these p ho ton s (called ‘direct’) proceeds along th e direction

of rotation a nd the oth er (called ‘opposite’) n the opposite direction. He nc e, according

to o ur formula ( l ) , the ‘direct’ photon will return t o the point of separation (the

sem i-transpa rent m irror) af ter th e ‘opposite’ on e with the t ime delay

where R is the angular velocity of rotation, d is the path covered (dr is its differential

elemen t) and S is the area encircled by both photons respective to the moving disc.

The same time delay, measured with the help of a clock which rests in absolute

space, will be A r = At o( l- ~ / c ~ ) - ~ ” .his is the fun da m en tal relation expressing the

absolute time dilation which is firmly defended by our theory (Marinov 1975a). Ifv << c, we can assume At = At,,, an d this assumption is always to b e m ad e when effects

which are first-order in u / c are analysed, as is th e case in the present p ap er. In(Marinov 19 78 a) we analyse the first-order effects in the different variations of the

‘rotating disc’ exp erim ent which can b e set u p if a refractive me dium is being used,

and in (Marinov 1 97 6) the seco nd-o rder effects .

-;-Present add ress: Niederschocklstrasse 62, A- 80 44 Graz , Austria.

@ 198 3 Th e Inst itute of Physics 1885



1886 S Marinov

Formula (2 ) can be written in the following form, where not the area encircled

but the path covered by the photons should figure:

A ~ = ~ J ~d . d r = - - - i - ,ud

C C

the result o n th e RHS being obtaine d by th e assumption tha t th e ‘direct’ and ‘opposite’photons fly along the circumference of the rotating disc (this can be done with the

help of a polyhedral mirror); then d = 27rR is the circumference of the disc, where

R is its radiu s.I n the Harress-Sagnac ‘rotating disc’ exp erime nt the point of sep ara tio n of the

‘direct’ and ‘opposite’ photons is the sam e as the p oint of their meeting, so that the

light paths of th e interfering ph oto ns are closed curves. If we interrupt these closed

paths and m ak e the points of sepa ration a nd m eeting different, the light paths of th e

‘direct’ and ‘opposite’ ph oto ns which becom e d ifferent for rest an d motion of the discmay be m ade straight lines. This is the in terru pte d ‘rotating disc’ experiment rep orte din the present paper. This experiment shows patently that the velocity of light is

direction dependent along a straight line on a rotating disc. Its scheme was the

following (see figure 1).

Figure 1. Th e interrupted ‘rotating disc’ experiment.

The light source S was a He-Ne laser. Sh was a shutte r which was governed by

the rotating disc and let light pass only at a strictly defined position of the disc when

both photoresistors PA, Bwere illuminated. Later we realised that since the areasof the photoresistors ar e small, the shu tter is unnecessary. If S, PA and PBwere alsoto be mounted on the rotating disc, the shutter Sh would be entirely unnecessary.

SM was a se m i-transparen t mirror, M a mirror, an d SMc a corrective semi-transparent

mirror which reduced the number of photons along the path to SMa o t he number

of photons along the path t o SMB.



The interrupted 'rotating disc ' experiment 1887

Let fo ur photons be em it ted by S at the same m om ent and suppose that they cover

first photon: S - SM - SM c- SM A-SMX - A ;

second photon : S-SM-SM C-SM A-SM B-SM L -PL;

third pho ton: S - M -M - M - SMB - SM L-SM X -PA ;fourth photon: S-SM -M -SM -SMB -SML -PB.

Using form ula (2) and figure 1,we find that in the case of rotation (with respect

to th e case at rest) the time it takes for the third (four th) pho ton t o reach P A (PB) s

sho rter than th e time it takes for the first (second) pho ton t o reach P A (PB )by the

amount

the following pa ths:

htA = ( 2 n R Z / c 2 ) an (AtB= ( n R 2 / c 2 ) in e ) . (4)

T he photoresistors PA , PB were put in the arm s of a W heats tone bridge. They were

illuminated uniformly by interfered light. When the disc was at rest, the bridge was

put into equilibrium, so that both photoresistors were illuminated by equal lightintensities. This was achieved by adjusting m icrometrically SM L and SMf3 an d chang -

ing in such a way the path difference between the first and third photons until thebridge comes into equilibrium. Then we set the disc in rotation. With increasing

rotational velocity, the bridge came into greate r and g reater disequilibrium, pasf'-g

through a sta te of m aximum disequ ilibrium. A t a certain angular velocity n,when

the s um of the differences in the optical paths A = (AtA+AtB)c became equal to thewavelength A of the light used, the bridge was again in equilibrium. In this case

A = A = ( ~ R ' / c ) ( ~a n i e + s i n e ) . ( 5 )

We experim entally checked this formula. T he sensitivity of the method is con-sidered in (Marinov 1977, 197th). Our interferometric 'bridge' method leads to a

precision SA/A = *2.5 X when we search for a maximum sensitivity, i.e. whenthe illumination over th e photoresistors at equilibrium of t he bridge should be th eaverage. W e have not searched for a maximum sensitivity, taking SA/A = *lo-'.

We experimentally checked formula ( 5 ) , putting A = 632.8 nm, 8 = 60.0"* OS",

R =40 .0*0 .2 cm. The number of revolutions per second N = s2/2.rr was measured

by a light stroboscopic cyclometer and maintained automatically with a precision

S N / N = *2 x We registered N = 92.90*0.02 rev s-'. Putting the figures into

formula (9 , we obtained, supposing the velocity of light is unknown, c=

(2 .98k0 .07 ) X lo 8 m s - l , where Sc = *7 x lo6m s-l was the m aximum error.

Apart from the experiment reported in this paper, on the same disc we carriedout tw o othe r groups of very im porta nt experiments: two variations of the Harress-

Sagnac 'rotating disc' experiment and the original non-inertial 'moving platform'

experiment (Marinov 1978a, 1981b). The same method was always used, namely,we gene rated two pairs of inte rfe rin g light beams which illuminated two pho toresistorsput in the arms of a Wh eat sto ne bridge. Always, when changing the velocity of

rotation, the illumination over one of the photoresistors increased a nd over the oth erdecreased, th us bringing th e bridge into disequilibrium. In all the se experim ents the

light source and the pho toreceivers are solid with respect to th e lab orato ry and onlyat a certain position of the rotating disc (over a small angle of rot atio n) did thephotoreceivers become illuminated. We succeeded in having stable interference pic-tures which were not disturbed by the rotation of the disc and t he trembling of thedifferent mirrors. W e consider ou r m eth od as original an d very sensitive and wesuppose it can be applied in other domains of measuring technique when one can



1888 S Marinov

make the effect to be measured influence in the ‘opposite’ sense th e interferencepictures in two pairs of light beams and become competitive to th e well known ‘leverof Jones’.

O ne of the referees suggested I must clearly state wh ethe r the result of the re po rted

experiment is in con trad iction to the pred iction s of special relativity. I discussed thistopic in num erou s publications (let me cite Marinov 1 975 b, 19 78 b) . According to

me, special relativity canno t explain even the result of th e historical Harress-Sagnacexperiment, as for its explanation o ne m ust assume th at in a m oving fram e the velocityof light is direction de pe nd en t. T h e relativists have ov ercom e this difficulty by stating

that a Sagnac effect appears only o n a closed path and is a result of a non-inertialmotion (th e disc is rotating!). Thu s, according to special relativity, on a straight pathon a rotating disc a ‘Sagnac effect’ does not exist, as a straight path may be chosensho rt enough and considered as inertially m oving. I called (Marinov 19 82 ) the effect

(2 ) (a re a multiplied by an gular velocity) the Sugnuc effect, and the effect (3 ) (distance

multiplied by line ar velocity) the Murinov effect, as I was th e first to observe it (Marinov197 4, 198 0). Thus, according to relativity, a Sagnac effect doe s exist but a M arinov

effect do es not exist. Ind ee d, if a M arinov effect exists along a chord o n a disc rotatingin a laboratory, it must exist along a chord on a rotating disc represen ting o ur spinning

Ea rth, and along a chord on a rotating disc representing our Earth revolving aroundthe Sun, or arou nd the centre of the Galaxy. Thus if the effect I have measured inthe experiment repo rted in this pa pe r is accepted , on e must by the law of fo rmal logicaccept my me asu rem ents of the E arth’ s absolute velocity.

References

Marinov S 1974 Czech . J. Phys . B 24 965- 975a Int. J . Theor. Phy s. 13 1 8 9

_. 975b Phys . Let t . 54A 1 9- 976 Int. J. Theor.Phys . 15 829- 977 Eppur si muoue (Bruxelles, CBD S, 2nd edn : Graz, East-West , 1981 )- 978a Found. Phys. 8 137- 978b Found. Phys. 8 801- 980 G e n . R e / . G r a v . 12 57- 981a Classical Physics (Graz, East-West)- 981b Ind . J. Phys . 55B 403- 982 Proc. Int. Con f. on Space-Time Absolu feness 1982 (Genoa , July 1982, ed E ast-West , Graz)

1983.01.24 - stefan marinov - the interrupted rotating disc experiment

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