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Abstract


A Theory of Light Without Special Relativity?

Liudmila B. Boldyreva
Nina B. Sotina
Year: 2001
Keywords: Light, Special Relativity
The postulates of special relativity ascribe to light certain kinematic properties that are independent of the reference frame, provided the frame is inertial. As is known, the quantum concepts, not classical ones, are applicable to light in the general case. In studies of quantum objects (the photon or field of light), the role of the physical frame of reference as well as the role of measurement is especially important. In this case, the frame of reference is practically inseparable from the concrete physical laboratory where measurement takes place.

Ascribing of a priori properties to light is inconsistent, for example, with the experiments of the EPR type, in which a quantum correlation between the measured characteristics of photon, such as frequency, polarization, etc., is observed. How can one, for example, use the relativistic Doppler formula for calculation of the frequency of a photon out of a pair of frequency-correlated photons!? The experiments of the EPR type prove that one may speak for certain of those properties of light only that have been revealed at measurement. From this viewpoint, there is sense to discuss only the readings of measurement instruments.

We show using the Fizeau and Doppler effects that if interaction between light (photons) and the detector is taken into account the experimentally proven kinematics formulas of special relativity can be derived in the framework of three-dimensional Euclidean space with time independent of the spatial coordinates. Notice that those formulas refer to the main conclusions from relativistic kinematics that have been confirmed experimentally.

The new physical concept that allows for creating a theory alternative to special relativity is a notion of the photon as a complex object with intrinsic motions whose energy has to be taken into account in the conservation laws at the detection of the photon. We obtained the formula for the transformation of the energy of photon from one inertial (in the sense of Galileo) frame to another one. According to the formula, the energy of a circularly polarized photon is transformed in accordance with the same equation as the energy of the moving material object having intrinsic rotations with respect to the center of mass. It is consistent with the concept of the photon as a quasi-particle in the physical vacuum, having the mass of the motion and angular momentum.