Reflections on the problem of measuring the velocity of light

Shock waves and Cerenkov radiation in electromagnetic substratum

“…[2] Within the frame of the STR, which implies that EM waves propagate in an empty vacuum without wave carrier (substructure or ether) [2], a Cerenkov effect in vacuum would be unthinkable since all electron beams are subluminal, vl < Co, by definition. The experimentally unproven assertion of the STR that EM waves propagate in a vacuum free from any material wave carrier has come under increased criticism as a physical untenable concept (see, e.g., Ives [4,5], Janossy [2,6,7], Dirac [8,9], Builder [10,11], Mansouri and Sexl [12], or Winterberg [13][14][15][16][17][18] [2,[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20], it is remarkable that the STR (which denies the EM ether) "unintentionally" reintroduces an ether through the Lorentz covariant (i) quantum mechanics (Dirac's electron-positron vacuum) [2,8,9,13,16,18] and (ii) quantum electrodynamics (EM zero-point energy). [9,13,16,18] This ether of relativistic quantum mechanics and electrodynamics has infinite energy and mass densities, owing to the Lorentz covariance imposed on these the...…”

“…[23] These experiments are in complete agreement with the theory of acoustic shock waves excited by a moving projectile in homogeneous gas flows. [23] [2,[4][5][6][7][8][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]28] In this so-called EM substratum or ether frame, the ordinary Maxwell equations hold since w 0 in Z:. [2] Transforming the Maxwell equations for the ether rest frame r.(r,t,0) to an arbitrary inertial frame r.(r,t,w) with ether flow w, by means of the Galilean spacetime transformations, leads to generalized covariant Maxwell equations which contain explicitly the ether velocity w. [24][25][26][27] In particular, the wave equations for the magnetic vector potential A(r,t) and the scalar electric potential (r,t) in vacuum (/o,o) are obtained for an arbitrary inertial frame r.(r,t,w) with ether flow w in the form (Chapter 6): [24][25][26][27] (2) where the divergence of A(r,t) is determined by the generalized Lorentz gauge [24][25][26][27] VA -/oeo(0/at + wV)(,l, wA).…”

“…The spectral ener densi dWd 3, [2,[6][7][8][9][10][11][13][14][15][16][17][18][30][31][32] Heisenberg, Wheeler, or Winterberg. [33,34,13,14,16,18] In the case of the Cerenkov effect, we will see that a natural frequency cutoff results from the non-zero radius of the charged particle, which is large compared with the estimated minimum length in physics.…”

“…ELEC'IODYNAMICS IN VACUUM EM signals advance in vacuum with a velocity which is independent of the velocity of the emitting source. [2,6,7] Thus, the vacuum behaves like a carrier medium (ether) for EM waves, in a similar way as gases, liquids, or solids serve as carrier media for ordinary waves. Galilei covariant EM theory shows that EM signals propagate in an inertial frame r.(r,t,w) with the velocity c + w downstream the ether flow w and the velocity c w upstream the ether flow w. [2,6,7,10,11,25,36] This interesting ether effect has been observed in Sagnac type experiments, but is unobservable in the usual Michelson-Morley type [2] setups using go-and-return light paths, due to the length contraction of the mirror distances from the semi-transparent plate.…”

“…Galilei covariant EM theory shows that EM signals propagate in an inertial frame r.(r,t,w) with the velocity c + w downstream the ether flow w and the velocity c w upstream the ether flow w. [2,6,7,10,11,25,36] This interesting ether effect has been observed in Sagnac type experiments, but is unobservable in the usual Michelson-Morley type [2] setups using go-and-return light paths, due to the length contraction of the mirror distances from the semi-transparent plate. For this reason, the STR, which asserts that one and the same light signal propagates not only in the inertial frame of source but also in all other inertial frames with the same velocity c ("relativity principle"), represents a tautology based not on actual light velocities but on average go-and-return light velocities E c [2,6,7,10,11,25,35] On the other hand, a particle moves in vacuum with a momentum my, which depends not only on the imparted acceleration but also on the state of motion of the accelerator in the inertial frame r.(r,t,w) in which v is observed. Since no specific tests were made, experiments are not known which indicate that an accelerator produced (under the same operating conditions) a larger particle velocity v in a given direction (vow>0) than in the opposite direction (vow<0).…”