Langevin's `Twin Paradox' paper revisited

Abstract

An in-depth and mathematically-detailed analysis of Langevin's popular 1911 article on the special theory of relativity is presented. For the reader's convenience, English translations of large parts of the original French text are given. The self-contradictory nature of many of Langevin's assertions is pointed out. Of special interest is the analysis of the exchange of light signals between the travelling and stay-at-home twins in Langevin's thought experiment, in which antinomies are found in the conventional relativistic treatment. Their resolution shows that the physical basis of the differential aging effect in the experiment is not `length contraction', as in the conventional interpretation, but instead the application of the correct relative velocity transformation formula. The spurious nature of the correlated `length contraction' and `relativity of simultaneity' effects of conventional special relativity is also demonstrated. In consequence, an argument given, claiming to demonstrate that an upper limit of $c$ on the speed of any physical signal is required by causality, is invalid. Its conclusion is also in contradiction with astronomical observations and the results of a recent experiment.