Relativistic aberration effect on the the light reflection law and the form of reflecting surface in a moving reference frame

Abstract

The influence of the relativistic motion of the reference frame on the light reflection law is investigated. The method is based on applying the relativistic aberration affect for three light signals: incident, normal and reflected rays. The form of the reflection law in the moving reference frame is substantially modified and includes an additional parameter which is the velocity vector of the reference frame. It is shown that the reflected ray, as measured by a moving observer, would not in general be in the same plane as the incident and normal rays. A general method to transform the form of any rigid surface in 3-dimensional space with respect to the arbitrary directed relative motion of the reference frame is detailed. This method is based on the light signals processes and the invariance of the light velocity under Lorentz transformations. It is shown that a moving observer will measure a plane surface as a hyperboloid. That observer will also measure a spherical surface as an ellipsoid. A right line in the plane is seen by a moving observer as a hyperbola. The whole analysis is extended to the case of a uniform media.