Kinematical and gravitational analysis of the rocket-borne clock experiment by Vessot and Levine using the revised Robertson's test theory of special relativity

The kinematic aspects of the rocket-borne clock experiment by Vessot and Levine are analyzed with the revised Robertson's test theory of special relativity (Found. Phys.14, 625 (1984)). Besides the expected time-dilation, it is found that the intermediate steps of this experiment yield in principle Michelson-Morley type information (a relation between longitudinal and transverse length contractions) in the third order of the velocities involved, but no relativity-of-simultaneity related effects.The flat space-time test theory induces a family of spherically symmetric line elements that become the Schwarzschild line element in the relativistic case and also in theabinito rest frame of the theory. These line elements represent the same space-time manifold, but pertain in a one-to-one correspondence to the different flat space-time coordinate transformations of the test theory. The conserved energy is related to the family of local energies in the tangent plane. No deviations from the orthodoxy appear at the pertinent levels of approximation. Hence the unexplained residuals of the Vessot-Levine experiment are not due in obvious ways to kinematic and gravitational frequency shifts caused by deviations of the real coordinate transformations from the Lorentz transformations.This work was started while the author was at Departamento de Fisica, Facultad Experimental de Ciencias, Universidad del Zulia, Maracaibo, Venezuela. It was completed at the Department of Physics, Utah State University, Logan, Utah 83422.