Replication of the Trouton-Noble Experiment

International audienceThe basic aim of the 1903 Trouton-Noble experiment was to detect an absolute motion of the Earth through the ether. The experiment presented in this paper is a replication of the Trouton-Noble experiment done with present technology, free from previous imperfections.Contrary to previous results, a positive result has been observed since the sensitivity of the experimental setup has been improved by a factor 100 with respect to the original 1903 experiment. Namely, a continuous measurement of the rotation of the capacitor was observedwhen a high voltage (33.7 kV) was applied to the capacitor. This indicates that indeed the present experiment is the electrostatic equivalent of the Michelson-Gale experiment