The CMB, preferred reference system and dragging of light in the earth frame

Abstract

The dominant CMB dipole anisotropy is a Doppler effect due to a particular motion of the solar system with velocity of 370 km/s. Since this derives from peculiar motions and local inhomogeneities, one could meaningfully consider a fundamental frame of rest $\Sigma$ associated with the Universe as a whole. From the group properties of Lorentz transformations, two observers, individually moving within $\Sigma$, would still be connected by the relativistic composition rules. But ultimate implications could be substantial. Physical interpretation is thus traditionally demanded to correlating some dragging of light observed in laboratory with the direct CMB observations. Today the small residuals, from Michelson-Morley to present experiments with optical resonators, are just considered instrumental artifacts. However, if the velocity of light in the interferometers is not the same parameter "c" of Lorentz transformations, nothing would prevent a non-zero dragging. Furthermore, observable effects would be much smaller than classically expected and most likely of irregular nature. We review an alternative reading of experiments which leads to remarkable correlations with the CMB observations. Notably, we explain the irregular $10^{-15}$ fractional frequency shift presently measured with optical resonators operating in vacuum and solid dielectrics. For integration times of about 1 second, and typical Central-Europe latitude, we also predict daily variations of the Allan variance in the range $(5\div12) \cdot 10^{-16}$.