Assessment of the experimental support for differential simultaneity

Abstract

The Lorentz transformation describes differential simultaneity, which reflects the offsetting of time with distance between reference frames. Differential simultaneity is essential for Lorentz invariance. Here, the current experimental support for differential simultaneity is assessed. Differential simultaneity can be mathematically removed from the Lorentz transformation to produce an alternate transformation that describes relativistic effects in the absence of differential simultaneity. Differential simultaneity is shown to be required for Lorentz symmetry. The alternate transformation is used as a contrast for the Lorentz transformation to assess whether relativistic experiments provide definitive evidence for differential simultaneity. If the alternate transformation is compatible with an experiment, then the experiment does not provide definitive evidence for differential simultaneity because it can be explained in the absence of differential simultaneity. Here, the alternate transformation is shown to be compatible with the broad array of current relativistic experiments. This implies that current experiments do not provide definitive evidence for differential simultaneity. Thus, an essential aspect of Lorentz symmetry currently lacks definitive experimental support.

28 pages, 3 figures, 6 tables; published in Intl. J. Mod. Phys. A

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