Paper detail

A Generalized Sagnac-Wang-Fizeau formula

We present a special-relativistic analysis of deformable interferometers where counter propagating beams share a common optical path. The optical path is allowed to change rather arbitrarily and need not be stationary. We show that, in the absence of dispersion the phase shift has two contributions. To leading order in $v/c$ one contribution is given by Wang empirical formula for deformable Sagnac interferometers. The second contribution is due to the stretching of the optical path and we give an explicit formula for this stretch term valid to first order in $v/c$. The analysis provides a unifying framework incorporating the Sagnac, Wang and Fizeau effects in a single scheme and gives a rigorous proof of Wang empirical formula.