The Michelson—Morley experiment in an accelerated reference frame

摘要

We analyze the Michelson—Morley experiment in a reference frame moving with constant proper acceleration. Using the same method of analysis which gives a null result in inertial frames, we find a nonzero fringe shift when the experiment is performed in a noninertial (accelerated) reference frame. More importantly, the key result of this paper is the discovery that the expected fringe shift depends not only on the interferometer's rate of acceleration, but also on its velocity relative to the unique reference frame in which the speed of light is uniform in all directions. While it has been repeatedly shown that no experiment performed in an inertial reference frame can detect that frame's absolute velocity, the analysis in this paper shows that by considering experiments in accelerated reference frames it may be possible to measure absolute velocity after all.