2020Unpublished venueRequires access

Are We Wrong about the Michelson Morley Experiment

Hans Deyssenroth

Open publisher page 1 citations

Abstract

The answer could be yes, because of a small detail that has been overlooked for decades and that was not known in 1905. Applying the Quantum Theory to the Michelson Morley experiment (MME), one can recognize that there are no skewed light paths in the y-arm, perpendicular to the moving x-direction. The MME must be interpreted differently. Therefore, the calculation of the time durations that photons take from the laser to the detector must be changed with the outcome that the null result can only be achieved if there is no length contraction. The time dilation, measured in many experiments, must have another cause. This could be regarded as just another incompatibility between the Special Theory of Relativity and the Quantum Theory, but in this case it goes deeper. A time dilation without a length contraction would have great impacts to the Theories of Relativity, though there are overwhelming confirmations by complex experiments, because the physical basis to the mathematical space-time modelling by the Lorentz transformation would be wrong. Several experiments with the newest technology are proposed to test this alternative view on this fundamental experiment.

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What this paper is about

The answer could be yes, because of a small detail that has been overlooked for decades and that was not known in 1905. Applying the Quantum Theory to the Michelson Morley experiment (MME), one can recognize that there are no skewed light paths in the y-arm, perpendicular to the moving x-direction. The MME must be interpreted differently. Therefore, the calculation of the time durations that photons take from the laser to the detector must be changed with the outcome that the null result can only be achieved if there is no length contraction. The time dilation, measured in many experiments, must have another cause. This could be regarded as just another incompatibility between the Special Theory of Relativity and the Quantum Theory, but in this case it goes deeper. A time dilation without a length contraction would have great impacts to the Theories of Relativity, though there are overwhelming confirmations by complex experiments, because the physical basis to the mathematical space-time modelling by the Lorentz transformation would be wrong. Several experiments with the newest technology are proposed to test this alternative view on this fundamental experiment.

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Available abstract

The answer could be yes, because of a small detail that has been overlooked for decades and that was not known in 1905. Applying the Quantum Theory to the Michelson Morley experiment (MME), one can recognize that there are no skewed light paths in the y-arm, perpendicular to the moving x-direction. The MME must be interpreted differently. Therefore, the calculation of the time durations that photons take from the laser to the detector must be changed with the outcome that the null result can only be achieved if there is no length contraction. The time dilation, measured in many experiments, must have another cause. This could be regarded as just another incompatibility between the Special Theory of Relativity and the Quantum Theory, but in this case it goes deeper. A time dilation without a length contraction would have great impacts to the Theories of Relativity, though there are overwhelming confirmations by complex experiments, because the physical basis to the mathematical space-time modelling by the Lorentz transformation would be wrong. Several experiments with the newest technology are proposed to test this alternative view on this fundamental experiment.

Key concepts: Time dilation, Length contraction, Tests of special relativity, Theoretical physics, Theory of relativity, Physics, Lorentz transformation, Photon

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