Ives–Stilwell experiment
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Ives–Stilwell experiment exploits the Transverse Doppler effect (TDE) described by Albert Einstein in his 1905 paper.
Einstein subsequently suggested an experiment based on the measurement of the relative frequencies of light perceived as arriving from a light source in motion with respect to the observer. Ives and Stilwell undertook the task of executing the experiment and they came up with a very clever way of separating the much smaller TDE from the much bigger longitudinal Doppler effect. The experiment was executed in 1938 and it was reprised multiple times [1],[2].
Ives wanted to do a positive test of time dilation, as followed from the "theory of Lorentz and Larmor" and as was first suggested "by Einstein and Ritz". This was the first direct, quantitative test of the time dilation factor.
The Ives–Stilwell experiment forms one of the fundamental tests of special relativity theory. Other such tests were the Michelson–Morley and Kennedy–Thorndike experiments as well as the Kauffman experiments.
[edit] References
- H.E. Ives and G.R. Stilwell, J. Opt. Soc. Am 28, 215 (1938); J. Opt. Soc. Am 31, 369(1941)
- On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies Einstein's 1905 paper
