L'Aether ou le vide quantique

4 mai 2006

Aether

Trouton-Noble experiment

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The Trouton-Noble experiment attempted to detect motion of the Earth through the luminiferous aether, and was conducted in 1901–1903 by Frederick Thomas Trouton (who also developed the Trouton's ratio) and H. R. Noble. It was based on a suggestion by George FitzGerald that a charged parallel-plate capacitor moving through the aether should orient itself perpendicular to the motion. Like the earlier Michelson-Morley experiment, Trouton and Noble obtained a null result: no motion relative to the aether could be detected.

This null result was reproduced, with increasing sensitivity, by Chase in 1927 and Hayden in 1994. Such experimental results are now seen, consistent with special relativity, to reflect the constancy of the speed of light and the absence of any absolute rest frame (or aether). Recent (1998) controversial claims of a positive result by Cornille et al. are described below.

The detailed relativistic analysis of the null result requires care to correctly reconcile, for example, the effects seen by observers in different frames of reference (see e.g. Teukolsky, 1996 and Jefimenko, 1999), but ultimately all such theoretical descriptions are shown to give the same result. The early history of descriptions of this experiment is reviewed by Janssen (1995). Lire suite de l'article...