# A vertical variation of modern versions of Michelson-Morley

For almost a year now, I have been in the uncomfortable position of having an idea.

However, there is one nice thing about this idea. It makes a concrete, exact and relatively easy to test physical prediction.

The idea predicts that there is a 11,187 m/s (Earth’s escape velocity) aethereal wind directly into the surface of the Earth at its surface.

I believe it would be possible to test this by performing a vertical variation of modern versions of the Michelson-Morley experiment (MMX) with one arm pointed in the vertical direction. (Modern MMX)

In 2003, Müller et al. performed a normal (2 horizontal orthogonal arms) modern MMX using cryogenic optical resonators that found a “possible anisotropy of the speed of light c, (of) 2.6 +/- 1.7 parts in 10^15” ( arXiv )

In a brief conversation with Holger Müller a Professor at Berkeley and the lead author of that paper, he stated that to this knowledge no one had ever performed a variation of the experiment using a vertical arm. He also mentioned that such an experiment would be complicated by the fact that gravity would slightly compress the length of the vertical bar making two equal length bars no longer equal in length.

“They haven't been done as far as i know. The problem is that any interesting physics signal would be hard to tell from a large signal from stretching of the arms under their own weight.” - H. Müller

I am interested in attempting to run this experiment myself. To that end, I have the following questions:

1. Given current Physics understanding, is there any reason to expect that such a vertical variation of the MMX wouldn’t return the exact same results as all other MMXs, namely that there is no anisotropy in the speed of light?
2. Given the complications mentioned by Professor Müller, are there reasonable methods available to overcome them? Especially considering the size of the effect (c + 11,187m/s vs c) is substantially larger than the accuracy obtained in his and similar modern MMXs.
3. What is the order of magnitude cost of such an experiment? If I am to fund this personally, would such a project cost \$10,000? \$100,000? \$1,000,000? more? Any insight offered on this topic will be greatly appreciated. - Material compression isn't the only problem: the gravitational redshift is more than a little significant in this arrangement. – dmckee Feb 17 '14 at 0:44 @dmckee Is the redshift reversible? Will a photon sent from the surface of the earth and bounced off a mirror in space back to the surface have a net redshift or will it blueshift back to where it started? – aepryus Feb 17 '14 at 1:11 Certainly it reverse coming back in the sense that the wavelength of the light is the same when it gets back onto the shared optical path, but it introduces a phase shift which is exactly what an interferometer is sensitive to. What I haven't done is attempt to estimate if this is something you could subtract out of the data. – dmckee Feb 17 '14 at 1:16 @dmckee Ok, thanks a lot for the feedback. I'll work on the calculation. – aepryus Feb 17 '14 at 1:19 aepryus: "In 2003, Müller et al. performed a normal (2 horizontal orthogonal arms) modern MMX using cryogenic optical resonators [... arxiv.org/abs/physics/0305117 ]" -- There (p. 2) it is claimed "In our experiment (Fig. 1), we use two$L = 3 ~ \text{cm}long COREs (cryogenic optical resonators)". How did Müller et al. measure whether (or to which accuracy) this setup condition was and remained actually satisfied throughout the trial? (Surely that's not only a worry in case in a "vertical variation" of the setup?) – user12262 Mar 2 '14 at 19:11 ## 3 Answers Firstly, you need to calculate how much your hypothesised effect will change the optical delay in each of the interferometer's arms and check that you expect to see any result with your proposed experiment. Otherwise put: what are the specifications of the interferometer (arm lengths, light source requirements etc, vibrational tolerances) that will let you see your effect if it is real and are they reasonable? I can see a major problem with your setup which you will need to overcome. There are several effects which I can think of which will influence your experiment. The first is the change in optical length of a given interferometer arm that arises through the gravitational redshift of the light propagating between different gravitational potentials when the arm is vertical (as verified by the Pound-Rebka experiment - see wiki page of this name as opposed to the absence of this effect when the arm is horizontal. This effect is small, but it can be precisely calculated from the Schwarzschild Metric and it is repeatable. So this effect is not a problem for you. An effect which is going to be vastly bigger and IMO almost impossible to account for is the change in an optical arm's length through the weight-induced mechanical stress on the arm as the arm of the interfermeter is rotated from horizontal to vertical. And the interferometer must be rotated to in the MMX as there is no non-interferometric way to compare the optical lengths of the interferometer arms. The solution is to swap the arms' roles (by rotation) and check for the effect thus. So this really means your experiment needs to be done under conditions of weightlessness. Does your proposed effect still exist in freefall according to your theory? Otherwise, you will need to develop a repeatable, independent-of-light means of measuring the weight induced strain in your interferometer arms to hundredths of wavelength accuracy. Any custom built interferometer system of the precision you will be seeking will easily eat up tens of thousands of US dollars / euros at the time of writing (2014) in the optics production and the mechanical alignment system. You will need to become highly adept at mechanical design and production of engineering drawings to get what you need. Add \10K for either the acquisition of software to help you do this (e.g. Solidworks) or professional engineering help (in the latter case, add \$20K to \$30K).

Now, add the cost to put your experiment into low Earth orbit. The Space Exploration Stack Exchange Question "What is the current cost-per-pound to send something into LEO?" may help you. It would be a fair bet, from the figures quoted there, that your looking at \$25K USD / kg. So a ten kilogram interferometer satellite system (don't forget data telemetry) is going to cost you a quarter of a million USD / euros to get it to where it will work. So all up, I'd say a budget of the order of \$400K USD / \\$400K euros is looking like a minimum figure.

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Thanks immensely for this answer. Actually, this idea predicts that the effect will go away entirely in freefall (physics.stackexchange.com/questions/130323/a-clock-in-freefall). Beyond that, I have come to realize that even with the 11km/s wind this experiment would also return a null result. My current thinking is that length contraction is entirely a result of aethereal wind and always precisely masks the wind, resulting in Lorentz covariance in all cases. – aepryus Oct 28 '14 at 16:01

An example of a similar experiment is the famous measurement of a gravitationally induced phase shift in a neutron beam by Colella, Overhauser, and Werner (often called "the COW experiment"). It's interesting to note that while there was an unambiguous gravitational phase shift, its size was not as predicted.

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First of all I would like to thank you for letting me participate of this discussion. I've been trying to get an answer for this question myself for at least six years now. Ever since I've realized that the experiment hasn't been done. Then one day in the same year (2009) I found a video on YouTube made by a German Blacksmith named Martin Grusenick. We've exchanged some emails throughout 2010 and by then he told me that after the video was posted on line his computer was hacked and he was getting threats, and that he was "stirring a hornets nest". I haven't been able to contact Martin since late 2010.

His modified Michelson Morley experiment not only does confirm the 1887 result but also that by rotating the device in the vertical axis DOES SHOW fringe movement of the interference lines, as predicted.

My point is that this experiment should be replicated by Academics in order to empirically prove or disprove that the Aether exists, which shouldn't be hard.

Now, we come to the really hard part which is dealing with the results. What the "Extended" experiment indicates is that the claims made by Nikola Tesla were absolutely right and would explain the complete mystery of his last 30 years of research, and the Aether not only is the source of gravity, but inertia and matter itself, in a forever motion, contrary to the biblical (a la fiat lux) big bang theory. It would also explain the anomalies for observed phenomena, such as the origin and growth of celestial bodies and the observed and documented phenomena of advanced foreign technologies visiting our planet utilizing what could only be described as Aetheric technology, completely silent and capable of instantly jumping to superluminal speeds.

In my opinion, the biggest question is: "Are prepared to have such a technology?" and "what are the security implications of having unlimited power?". We also have the problem of dealing with the energy cartels that benefit from the ignorance of population of not knowing that nature itself provides the excess "energy" (and by now I am not referring to the current classical electromagnetism model), as stated by Tesla.

Well, only time will tell, and meanwhile we do what we can to evolve, which is a guaranteed right of any sentient being. We will find the answer, I can guarantee you that. Thanks!

Alex Tigre

Here is a link for Martin Grusenick's EXTENDED MICHELSON MORLEY EXPERIMENT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7T0d7o8X2-E

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