Paper detail

Re-Analysis of Michelson-Morley Experiments Reveals Agreement with COBE Cosmic Background Radiation Preferred Frame so Impacting on Interpretation of General Relativity

We report a re-analysis of the old results from the Michelson-Morley interferometer experiments that were designed to detect absolute motion. We build upon a recent (1998) re-analysis of the original data by Munera, which revealed small but significant effects after allowing for several systematic errors in the original analyses. The further re-analysis here reveals that a genuine effect of absolute motion is expected, in what is essentially a quantum interference experiment, but only if the photons travel in the interferometer at speeds V < c. This is the case if the interferometer operates in a dielectric, such as air, or helium as was the case of the Illingworth (1927) Michelson-Morley experiment. The re-analysis here of the Illingworth experimental data correcting for the refractive index effect of the helium, reveals an absolute speed of the Earth of v=369+/-123 km/s, which is in agreement with the speed of v=365+/-18 km/s determined from the dipole fit, in 1991, to the NASA COBE satellite Cosmic Background Radiation (CBR) observations. These experimental results refute Einstein's assertion that absolute motion through space has no meaning, and require a re-assessment of the interpretation of General Relativity.