Experimental Establishment of the Relativity of Time

TLDR

Classical experiments supporting relativity do not require abandoning absolute time, so this study directly tests whether time obeys relativistic principles. The experiment employs a highly stable interferometer that splits a homogeneous light beam into two paths of different length; the resulting interference pattern depends on the system’s translational velocity, enabling detection of relativistic effects from Earth’s rotation and revolution. The apparatus found no evidence of absolute time unless the solar system’s velocity is less than about half Earth’s orbital speed, and combining this null result with Michelson–Morley’s confirms the Lorentz–Einstein transformations and the relativity principle.

Abstract

None of the fundamental experiments on which the restricted principle of relativity is based requires for their explanation that the classical concept of absolute time be modified; the present experiment was devised to test directly whether time satisfies the requirements of relativity. It depends on the fact that if a pencil of homogeneous light is split into two components which are made to interfere after traversing paths of different length, their relative phases will depend on the translational velocity of the optical system unless the Lorentz-Einstein transformation equations are valid. Hence, such a system at a point on the earth should give rise to an interference pattern which varies periodically as the velocity of the point changes in consequence of the rotation and revolution of the earth. The effect to be expected for a small velocity is so very small that it has been necessary to devise a special source of light, an interferometer of great stability and a refinement of the technic of measuring displacements in the interference pattern. With the apparatus finally employed, we have shown that there is no effect corresponding to absolute time unless the velocity of the solar system in space is no more than about half that of the earth in its orbit. Using this null result and that of the Michelson-Morley experiment we derive the Lorentz-Einstein transformations, which are tantamount to the relativity principle.