From Humboldt to Humbug

Modern physics made a fool of itself, did follow Einstein blindly – as Max Planck directed. And now? They are none the wiser, so klug als wie zuvor. There was given a theory that pretended to get the c-is-const-hypothesis compatible with relativity principle. But it failed from beginning and the interpreters tried to make the students understand the paradoxes – until today. By applying high-tech experiments around the Einstein believing globe they try to prove that -despite all paradoxes- the theory of Relativity does hold.

What humans cannot understand they cannot take as useful. What is a theory good for if humans do not understand it?

After adjustment the instruments measure what the theory predicts: Modern Michelson-Morley-Experiments seem to prove that there is no ether and light speed is constant at all diections – independent from motion.

General relativity and quantum theory are experimentally justified theories describing nature. Despite enormous efforts, a commonly accepted theory
was not yet found.

The BOOST – A Satellite Mission to test Lorentz Invariance using High-Performance Optical Frequency references (Boost Symmetry Test) plans to measure the Lorentz invariance with unprecedented sensitivity by comparing two highly stable frequency references aboard the satellite.

If the so-called Lorentz Invariance holds the speed of light must be measured to be the same in any direction, and during any contínuous constant motion as well.

In our previous experiments a possible anisotropy of c could be restricted under a level of 5 · 10^-16. Our current setup shows an improvement of more than one order of magnitude and provides SME-parameters at the level of 10^-17.

Modern Michelson-Morley experiments use cryogenic optical resonators.

Special relativity (SR) underlies all accepted theories of nature at the fundamental level.

In the classic setup, one compares the speed of light c in two orthogonal interferometer arms by observing the interference fringes. If c depends on the direction of propagation, the fringes would move if the setup is rotated. A modern technique measures resonance frequencies of two optical cavities. Violations of the isotropy of c may be detected as variation of the frequencies due to rotations.

A significant consequence of Lorentz symmetry is the isotropic nature of the speed of light, which remains invariant under rotation. Measuring the isotropy of the speed of light has played an important role in physics, starting with the seminal Michelson and Morley interferometer experiment in the late nineteenth century.

Question:
If we don’t want to measure some impact of rotational speed, how fast should the table rotate?

•  It should rotate as fast as possible!

Fallacy 1: Don’t ask the reason why

SRT just stated that speed of light is constant and therefore c must be measured to be const. But SRT did not explain how the light fronts would manage this constness – despite the fact that the light paths are different in length. The Lorentz contraction did not help H.A. Lorentz to explain, not A. Einstein to understand, not W. Pauli and not Richard Feynman – the latter just said: Must believe it.

Fallacy 2: Faith instead of critics

Is there one professorial chair in theoretical physics held by a person that is especially sceptically about Einstein’s theories?

Fallacy 3: Working without craftmenship

Craftmen need to prove what they are implementing. For this to realize they need to apply their own basics of understanding as their very invariants. The researcher at Humboldt University (Optical Metrology) just use the constness hypothesis of Albert Einstein to calibrate their instruments – without knowing the parameters that might cause or hinder that constness.

Euclidian Geometry to explain Lorentz Invariance

At first, we need to explain:

• If light goes independently (from sender, receiver etc.) while the receiving mirror (beam-splitter etc.) is in motion there must be an adjustment of the reflector to match both beams.

The general assumption on this -always ignored- detail is that light goes the Fermat’s path which is equal to the shortest distance. If we use the arm of LIGO interferometer of 4 km length this detail no longer may be ignored: While the light passes 4000 meters the earth rotates forward by ca. 30cm; the beam would miss the target. Therefore the mirrors of the cavity need to have a concave curvature.

LIGO’s pure fused silica mirrors – 40 kg each. (Credit: Caltech/MIT/LIGO Lab)

If spherical mirrors are used the light paths will change.

The path of light takes an asymmetrical form when spherical mirrors on our moving earth are used: The mirror (indicated by the circle) moves during the light passes (from A) upward to B matching it at the red dotted position. The reflection point is offset, the distance to the target is shortened a bit and consequently, the reflection becomes asymmetrically.

According to Fermat’s law the shortest path will be taken by light. Therefore the asymmetric light path is the one to be used in reflection-in-motion case!

Calculating the distance between both arms of the Michelson-Morley-Interferometer shows that both arms have exactly equal length if both beams are focused at the matching position that shows stable interference patterns.

Summary:

1. In order to prevent the walkoff of the vertical beam you have to use a spherical mirror.
2. In order to get the light beams joined after splitting you must adjust the mirrors properly.
3. In order to get a stable interference pattern you must adjust the mirrors during rotation.

If the light shows stable interference during rotation both mirrors will be set to equal path lengths and the vertical beam uses the asymmetric light path.

The operator himself selects the best matching pair of light paths. And – this is new for the scientific people selling Einstein’s relics – there is a pair of equal length.

If near-most equality is not enough for your setup, just use triple-reflectors instead!