Abstract

An absolute reference frame may be defined as the one which is stationary with respect to the center of mass of the Universe and in which speed of propagation of light is an isotropic constant. Any motion with respect to this frame may be referred as absolute motion. In this paper we examine the Sagnac effect of absolute motion in the context of clock synchronization through GPS satellites in common view mode. The e-synchronization of two clocks A and B amounts to introduction of time offsets such that the time taken by a light pulse to propagate between A and B will be measured to be the same in both directions. Synchronization of two clocks through a GPS satellite in common view mode is effectively equivalent to e-synchronization of these clocks and introduces an absolute synchronization mismatch proportional to the absolute velocity and length of the baseline. Measurement of this synchronization offset between the GPS synchronized clocks at the ends of a long baseline will enable the practical detection of absolute motion of earth. Here we propose a simple experiment for detection of absolute motion through measurement of absolute synchronization offsets between two timing laboratories maintaining UTC time.

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