Method for Constraining Light Speed Anisotropy by Using Fiber Optics Gyroscope Experiments

Abstract

The Mansouri-Sexl theory is a well known test theory of relativity. Mansouri and Sexl dealt with the theory of the Michelson-Morley, Kennedy-Thorndike and Ives-Stilwell experiments but left out the very interesting Sagnac experiment. In the following paper we will present a novel way of detecting anisotropy effects in   via a reenactment of the Sagnac experiment using fiber optic gyroscopes (FOG) where  is the length of the fiber and  is the angular speed of the FOG. We show how the fiber optics gyroscopes are used for constraining light speed anisotropy in the framework of the Mansouri-Sexl test theory.  We also show an interesting amplification effect due to the use of the Mansouri-Sexl slow clock transport equations in conjunction with FOGs. Our paper is divided into four main sections: in the first one we give an overview of the Mansouri-Sexl test theory of special relativity, in the second one we give a historical perspective of the Sagnac experiment, in the third section we formulate the Mansouri-Sexl theory for the Sagnac experiment and we conclude with experimental setup and results.