Precision tests with a new class of dedicated ether-drift experiments

TL;DR

This paper proposes a new class of ether-drift experiments using gaseous media in optical cavities to test the hypothesis that the quantum vacuum acts as a preferred reference frame, potentially causing measurable light speed anisotropies.

Contribution

It introduces a novel experimental approach with gaseous media in optical cavities to detect vacuum-induced anisotropies, expanding the scope of ether-drift tests.

Findings

Predictions suggest measurable anisotropies in light speed in gaseous media.

Experimental setups can be optimized based on the proposed phenomenological model.

The approach motivates precise tests of the vacuum's role as a preferred frame.

Abstract

In principle, by accepting the idea of a non-zero vacuum energy, the physical vacuum of present particle physics might represent a preferred reference frame. By treating this quantum vacuum as a relativistic medium, the non-zero energy-momentum flow expected in a moving frame should effectively behave as a small thermal gradient and could, in principle, induce a measurable anisotropy of the speed of light in a loosely bound system as a gas. We explore the phenomenological implications of this scenario by considering a new class of dedicated ether-drift experiments where arbitrary gaseous media fill the resonating optical cavities. Our predictions cover most experimental set up and should motivate precise experimental tests of these fundamental issues.