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11/12/07 - Let's do the time warp
U of M researcher adds mass to Einstein's theory of relativity
Winnepeg Sun
November 12, 2007
Time is relative.
That's the theory a University of Manitoba researcher has played a critical role in proving through tests that demonstrate time dilation, part of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, is correct.
'It's spectacular that we did this,' said Dr. Gerald Gwinner. 'If relativity was disproven or a deviation was found, all hell would break loose. All our other theories, everything in physics, is based on relativity, so almost everything would have to be revised.'
Gwinner said the discovery was a century in the making.
He said the type of experiment he and his colleagues used was proposed by Einstein himself in 1907.
But while two British scientists proved time dilation to within a 1% margin of error in 1938, Gwinner said technology did not advance enough until just recently to complete the latest tests.
His team used a particle accelerator to send two atoms around a ring-shaped course at high speed and measure the differences with high-precision lasers, to show that time 'slows down' the atoms.
The results shrink the margin of error for time dilation to about 10,000 times less, he said.
Einstein theorized that this law means a moving clock ticks more slowly than an identical clock at rest.
The findings were published online by the journal Nature Physics yesterday, allowing Gwinner to verify the work of a scientific idol.
'The fascination with Einstein has almost rock-star status,' he said. 'That's probably what all us geeks are dreaming about.'
Gwinner said his study backs the science used in Global Positioning Systems, which have software that accounts for time dilation.
The professor is now planning an upgraded experiment with a larger accelerator.
