Title :
New ultra-sensitive Michelson-Morely experiment
Author :
Tobar, M.E. ; Hartnett, J.G. ; Anstie, J.D.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Phys., Univ. of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, Australia
Abstract :
A new Michelson-Morley experiment is proposed by measuring the beat frequency of two near degenerate modes with orthogonal propagation in a single spherical resonator. The unique properties of the experiment allow: 1. Substantial common mode rejection of some noise sources: 2. Simple calculation of the signal if Special Relativity is violated. We show that optimum filtering may be used to increase the signal to noise ratio, and to search for a preferred direction of the speed of light. We conclude that an improvement in sensitivity of order 10/sup 5/ is possible using this technique.
Keywords :
light velocity measurement; special relativity; Michelson-Morely experiment; beat frequency; common mode rejection; degenerate mode; light speed measurement; optimum filtering; orthogonal propagation; sensitivity; signal-to-noise ratio; special relativity; spherical resonator; Clocks; Filtering; Frequency measurement; Microwave propagation; Modems; Optical propagation; Resonant frequency; Signal to noise ratio; Strontium; Testing;
Conference_Titel :
Precision Electromagnetic Measurements, 2002. Conference Digest 2002 Conference on
Conference_Location :
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-7242-5
DOI :
10.1109/CPEM.2002.1034736
