The Sagnac effect is a very well-known phenomenon applied also in Laser Gyros and GPS.

This paper shows that the Sagnac effect can be derived only with absolute simultaneity in the LAB frame https://arxiv.org/pdf/2106.09537.pdf

A moving detector, installed in a spinning closed loop, detects non-simultaneous EM waves emitted in opposite directions along the loop.

Sagnac's ingenious experiment in 1913 used a complicated set of mirrors with a beam splitter and an interferometer, set in rotation, to detect the non-simultaneous arrival of the EMwaves of a known same wavelength along opposite paths (bouncing on the same mirrors).

The value found by Sagnac, in terms of the variation of the phase at the rotating interferometer, corresponds to the following tested formula:

(1) Δϕ=4πAω / λc

  • ​A is the area enclosed by the light path (for a circle, 2A=πr^2).
  • ω is the angular velocity of the rotation.
  • λ is the wavelength of the light, c is the speed of light in vacuum.

The interval of time between the arrivals of the beams is easily obtained:

(2) Δt=4Aω /​c2

In term of the instantaneous speed v of the interferometer and L the length of the path,

(3) Δt=2Lv/​c2

verified for a generic loop of length L [1].

Eq.(3) is a first-order approximation of

(4) Δt=2 γ2vL/​c2 the time measured by a stationary observer, from classical mechanics

(5) Δt=2γvL/​c2 time measured by a comoving observer with the interferometer needs the application of the twin effect hence relativity.

Considering the contribution to the variation of the time for one wave alone

(6) Δt= γvL/​c2

This is also the generic additional light-time of a wave to reach a moving target positioned at a distance L from the source when the wave was emitted.

It means that by varying the position of the target between emission and absorption, light has to cross a different path lengths than L, hence the time to connect the same objects at constant speed differs by γvL/​c2

  • From Sagnac experiment is that the speed of light is independent from the speed of the source (wave behavior) Ritz ballistic theory of light was singled out
  • The measured light time to cover the loop at rest is L/c and differs from the one in motion by γvL/​c2

The measured of SOL by a moving observer, if he assumes that the path of light to connect the clocks remains L, would become SOL+ = DS/Dt = L/(L/c-vL/​c2 ) = c/(1-v/c).

Eq. (6) shows evidence of the term vγx/c2 in time transformations of LT (equivalent Lorentz version)

t'=γ-1t - vx'/c2

x'=γ(x-vt)

hence vx'/c2 =v *γ(x-vt)/c2

vγx/c2 - vtγ/c2

that term is due to the variation of the light-time due to the motion of the object in the frame where light is isotropic. In this case, one frame is preferred in the problem.

The same term enters directly in Einstein's version of LT

t'=γt - γvx/c2

Einstein considers the clocks in the new frame to be out of sync, necessary to make the frames equivalent. Such a term is demonstrated to be a light-time variation hence it is not possible to be an offset between clocks.

The Sagnac effect discriminates between the LE and SR, showing a way to find experimentally γvx/c2 to be a light time variation. if SOL is isotropic in one frame it cannot be the same in relative moving frames.

[1] Ruyong Wang et al, “Modified Sagnac experiment for measuring travel-time difference between counter-propagating light beams in a uniformly moving fiber”, Physics Letters A 312 (2003) 7-10, DOI:10.1016/S0375-9601(03)00575-9. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/44141186.pdf

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