SR predictions on an recent microwave experiement

[lalbatros]

I quickly read the followoing IEEE paper:

http://www.atomicprecision.com/blog/wp-filez/Thim%20-%20Absence%20of%20the%20relativistic%20Doppler%20effect%20...%20.pdf

The author claims he proved that he invalidated experimentally the SR prediction of a transverse Doppler effect for microwaves.
Its experimental setup is shown in figure 1.

Basically, an homodyne frequency-shift detection is used.
It involves a fixed source and a fixed detector.
The setup involves two paths: a "reference path" and an "active path".
In the active path, the microwave beam passes trough a rotating emission-reception system.
Because of the rotation of the beam within the "active path", the author claims a transverse Doppler effect should be observed.
The author did not detect any shift and concluded this invalidates SR.

I think this paper is totally wrong in its analysis and its conclusion. Experimental results are right but useless.
The source and the detector have no relative motion and therefore I would not expect ant Doppler shift.
In addition, if one considers a even simpler version of this experiment, the conclusion of "no Doppler shift expected" is even more obvious to me. This simplified version would be based on a cylindrical cavity in the "active path" whose walls would be rotating. It is clear that rotating walls would make any difference compared with fixed wall: reflexion on perfect conducting walls does not depend on the transverse motion.

I would like to elaborate on my first impression.
I am interrested by your own ideas and comments on this experiement as well as in the basic theory to analyse such experiments in general.

Thanks

 

[Ich]

Hi,

I did a quick analysis of this experiment one year ago, showing that SR predicts a null result, as measured. Sorry it's in German; in English: your first impression is right, emitter and source are at rest, that's it. What's happening between: the wavefront is blueshifted and tilted as seen by the rotating disk, and will be re-emitted blueshifted and tilted. No change happens.

I had a rather lengthy discussion with Prof. Thim via e-mail concerning another paper where he thought to show an inconsistency in the Lorentz Transforms. He emerged as a full scale crank, beyond any reasoning. Hard to believe that he was (is?) still teaching students at the University of Linz.

 

[Entropia]

for sharing your thoughts on this recent microwave experiment and the author's claim that it has invalidated the SR prediction of a transverse Doppler effect. After reading the paper and considering your points, I agree that the experiment does not provide enough evidence to invalidate SR.

Firstly, it is important to note that the setup of the experiment involves a fixed source and a fixed detector, which means there is no relative motion between them. As you mentioned, this alone would not result in any Doppler shift, regardless of whether there is a rotating system in the "active path" or not.

Furthermore, the simplified version of the experiment using a rotating cylindrical cavity also does not provide any new insights. As you pointed out, the reflection on perfect conducting walls does not depend on transverse motion, so there would be no difference in the results between a rotating and fixed cavity.

In addition, the paper does not provide enough detail about the experimental setup and procedure, making it difficult to fully evaluate the results. For example, it is not clear how the author ensured that the "active path" was truly transverse to the "reference path", and if any precautions were taken to minimize any potential sources of error.

Overall, I believe that this experiment alone is not enough to invalidate SR. It would require more rigorous and detailed experiments to provide solid evidence against this well-established theory. As for analyzing such experiments in general, it is important to consider all possible sources of error and carefully design the setup to minimize them. Additionally, it is crucial to have a thorough understanding of the theory being tested and to ensure that the experimental setup is appropriate for testing it.