Indications for a preferred reference frame from an ether-drift experiment

Original · EN

We present a fully model-independent analysis of the extensive observations reported by a recent ether-drift experiment in Berlin. No a priori assumption is made on the nature of a hypothetical preferred frame. We find a remarkable consistency with an Earth's cosmic motion exhibiting an average declination angle |γ| 43ᵒ and with values of the RMS anisotropy parameter (1/2-β+δ) that are one order of magnitude larger than the presently quoted ones. This might represent the first modern indication for a preferred frame and for a non-zero anisotropy of the speed of light.