Two-way speed of light and Lorentz-FitzGerald's contraction in aether theory

Abstract

This paper aims at demonstrating that: 1/ Assuming the equality of the two-way transit time of light in vacuo, along the two perpendicular arms of Michelson's interferometers (modern versions of Michelson's experiment), and the anisotropy of the one-way speed of light in the Earth frame, two facts supported today by strong experimental arguments, length contraction (in Lorentz and FitzGerald's approach) should no longer be regarded as an ad hoc hypothesis, it appears necessary and can be easily deduced. 2/ Builder and Prokhovnik had the great merit of having shown that, as a result of to length contraction, the two-way transit time of light along a rod is the same in all directions in space (and not only in two privileged directions). We agree with these authors up to this point, but, contrary to what is often believed, their approach failed to reconcile aether theory with the invariance of the apparent (measured) two-way speed of light. Yet, as we shall show, due to the systematic measurement distortions entailed by length contraction and clock retardation assumed by aether theory, the two-way speed of light, although anisotropic and dependent on the absolute speed of the frame where it is measured, is always found equal to C. The reasons of this paradoxical but important result will be developed here. They confirm Lorentz-Fitzgerald's contraction and lend support of the existence of a preferred aether frame.