Spatial Directions, Anisotropy and Special Relativity Marco Mamone Capria Dipartimento di Matematica – via Vanvitelli, 1 – 06123 Perugia – Italy E-mail:
[email protected] October 22, 2018 Abstract The concept of an objective spatial direction in special relativity is in- vestigated and theories assuming light-speed isotropy while accepting the existence of a privileged spatial direction are classified, including so-called very special rel- ativity. A natural generalization of the proper time principle is introduced which makes it possible to devise non-optical experimental tests of spatial isotropy. Sev- eral common misunderstandings in the relativistic literature concerning the role of spatial isotropy are clarified. Keywords relativity, very special relativity, spatial isotropy, differential aging, reciprocity. 1 Introduction The link between the law of constancy of the speed of light and the Poincaré group P = P(4), via the principle of relativity, is not so direct as is sometimes described in the textbooks. In fact there is nothing in the principle of relativity plus the constancy law to forbid + selecting a subgroup of the proper orthocronous conformal Poincaré group CP" which + is not contained in P" . The further ingredient that must be added in order to forbid this result is an isotropy assumption. This has been realized, to some extent, since the arXiv:1008.3619v4 [gr-qc] 20 May 2011 beginnings of special relativity ([28], [15]). However misunderstandings on this topic still exist. For instance, in a book on the foundations of special relativity the choice of a constant Reichenbach function = 1=2 (cf. [22]) is defended on the ground that “the main insight of the Special Theory" is that “there are no preferred frames of reference, and hence no preferred directions”, which unduly conflates the isotropy of the one-way velocity of light with the isotropy of space ([21], p.