I think we nailed it down? Here then goes the "quantum reloaded" version
of the same experiment.
An experiment devised to detect absolute motion.
The experiment is very simple in theory, although it can be relatively
complex to realize it in practice: To measure the time a ray of light
takes to go from one point to another, one-way. That is, without the
return time. The total travel time is usually known as round-trip-time,
or rtt, but we'll be measuring the one-way time only, not the rtt.
Let's discuss it first from a theoretical perspective, and we can talk
later about experimental setups, which are really not so simple.
The idea is to be able to emit a ray of light in different directions,
precisely measuring the departure and arrival times over a fixed
traveling distance.
To solve the clock synchronization problem a quantum approach, using
entangled particles, is suggested.
The prediction is that absolute motion will be detected by comparing the
differences in the time deltas, and the motion will be in the direction
at which the time delta is greater.
The proposed explanation is as follows:
1) Light is not "pushed" by the emitting device. It leaves the emitting
device as a perturbation in the medium, and propagates at a fixed
velocity. That velocity is dependent only on the medium, and is c when
the medium is a vacuum.
2) The receiving device is also moving, in the same direction as the
emitting one(they are solidary, fixed on the same experimental setup).
3) If the whole experimental setup is moving(due to earth's rotation and
translation, typically) the receiving device will be going farther from
the emitted ray in some cases, and towards the emitted ray in some other
cases. Because, as said before, the emitted ray is independent of the
emitting device's velocity.
That way, absolute motion will be detected in the direction at which the
time delta is greater. The light ray will take longer, traveling at a
fixed velocity, to reach the receiving device, because the travel
distance in that direction will be greater. Again, because the receiving
device will be moving away while the light ray is traveling towards it.
To solve the clock synchronization problem, a quantum approach is suggested:
The receiving device will be attached to an entangled particle, in a way
which will make the quantum state of the entangled particle to collapse
when a light ray is detected.
The other entangled particle will be at the emitting device's end,
attached to a clock in a way that will make the clock to register an
event when the entangled particle collapses accordingly, due to the
collapse of its entangled sister.
The same clock will be attached too to a local light detector, which
will be triggered when detecting the emission of a light ray by the
emitting device.
That is, the same clock will detect both, the time when the light ray is
emitted, and the time when the light ray is detected, via quantum
entanglement.
Because collapse of entangled particles happens instantaneously, the
experimental setup will effectively detect the absolute one-way travel
time of a light ray in a given direction. Comparing these travel times
in different directions, absolute motion can thus be detected, in the
direction of the maximum time delta, and with a velocity proportional to it.
In other messages we can talk about the needed precision, and about the
conditions for feasible experimental setups. But I would first like to
hear your comments regarding the purely theoretical aspects of the
previous exposition.
Regards,
Mauro
