How Gravity Waves defeats the ASC

Jason Lisle’s Anisotropic Synchrony Convention (ASC) proposes a specific interpretation of special relativity, primarily to address the “starlight travel-time problem” within a young-earth creationist framework. The ASC posits that the one-way speed of light is infinite in the direction of an observer (like Earth) and half the standard speed of light (c/2) in the opposite direction. While this model is mathematically consistent with the round-trip speed of light being c (which is all that is experimentally measurable with a single clock), it is fundamentally incompatible with the physical phenomena of gravitational waves and their detection.

The groundbreaking discovery of gravitational waves by the LIGO and Virgo collaborations serves as a powerful and direct refutation of the ASC. The LIGO experiment relies on two geographically separated detectors, one in Hanford, Washington, and the other in Livingston, Louisiana. These detectors are nearly 3,000 kilometers apart and are linked by an intricate system of highly precise atomic clocks, synchronized with a level of accuracy that makes any significant, pre-existing time offset between them negligible.

When a gravitational wave from a distant cosmic event, such as a black hole merger, passes through Earth, it creates a minuscule and temporary distortion in spacetime. 

This distortion causes the two detectors’ arms to stretch and squeeze in a specific pattern. Critically, because the wave travels at the speed of light, it does not arrive at both detectors at the exact same moment. The detection in one observatory is followed by a second detection at the other, with a time delay on the order of a few milliseconds.

This time delay is not an artifact of unsynchronized clocks; it is a physical measurement of the time it takes for the gravitational wave to travel the distance between the two observatories. The precise value of this time delay, along with the specific shape of the detected signal, provides crucial information about the direction of the wave's source in the sky. If the wave arrived directly from the east, it would hit the Livingston detector before the Hanford one, and the time difference would be the distance between them divided by the speed of light. If it came from a different angle, the time delay would be shorter, but still governed by the same physical principles. This is exactly what the LIGO data shows.

Now, let's consider how the ASC model would interpret this. According to Lisle's convention, the one-way speed of light is not isotropic; it is not the same in all directions. You would expect an instantaneous measurement at both receivers. However, the LIGO data demonstrates a single, consistent speed for the wave, regardless of its direction of origin. The observed time delay between the two detectors is perfectly explained by the wave traveling at the standard speed of light, c, across the known distance between them. There is no evidence of an infinite speed of travel in one direction and a slower speed in the opposite direction.

The ASC requires a physical asymmetry in the laws of physics, such that light (and presumably gravitational waves) behaves differently depending on its direction relative to a privileged observer on Earth. But the gravitational wave signals, as measured by a network of detectors around the globe, show no such directional bias. The physics of spacetime distortion and wave propagation is consistent with an isotropic speed of light, as described by Einstein's General Relativity. The time differences recorded by the detectors are a direct consequence of the finite, constant speed of the wave, not an effect of a conventional clock synchrony that presupposes directional variance.

Furthermore, the very concept of a gravitational wave a ripple in the fabric of spacetime itself is a cornerstone of General Relativity. This theory, which predicts the existence and behavior of these waves, is built upon the fundamental principle that the speed of light is a universal constant for all inertial observers. The detection of these waves, and the successful use of their arrival times to triangulate their cosmic origins, provides powerful and independent confirmation of this foundational principle. The ASC, by introducing an arbitrary and unobservable directional dependence to the speed of light, is a departure from this successful framework. The empirical success of gravitational wave astronomy, which relies on an isotropic speed of propagation, thus stands as a definitive and powerful physical counter argument to the foundational claims of the Anisotropic Synchrony Convention.