Isosynchronous Paths on a Rotating Surface

Abstract

In special relativity, clock networks may be self-consistently synchronized in an inertial frame by slowly transporting clocks, or by exchanging electromagnetic signals between network nodes. However, clocks at rest in a rotating coordinate system—such as on the surface of the rotating earth—cannot be self-consistently synchronized by such processes, due to the Sagnac effect. Discrepancies that arise are proportional to the area swept out by a vector from the rotation axis to the portable clock or electromagnetic pulse, projected onto a plane normal to the rotation axis. This raises the question whether paths of minimal or extremal length can be found, for which the Sagnac discrepancies are zero. This paper discusses the variational problem of finding such “isosynchronous” paths on rotating discs and rotating spheres. On a disc, the problem resembles the classical isoperimetric problem and the paths turn out to be circular arcs. On a rotating sphere, however, between any two endpoints there are an infinite number of extremal paths, described by elliptic functions.