## 1. The Conventionality Thesis




The debate about the conventionality of simultaneity is usually
carried on within the framework of the special theory of relativity.
Even prior to the advent of that theory, however, questions had been
raised (see, e.g., Poincare 1898) as to whether simultaneity
was absolute; i.e., whether there was a unique event at location A
that was simultaneous with a given event at location B. In his first
paper on relativity, Einstein (1905) asserted that it was necessary to
make an assumption in order to be able to compare the times of
occurrence of events at spatially separated locations (Einstein 1905,
38-40 of the Dover translation or 125-127 of the Princeton
translation; but note Scribner 1963, for correction of an error in the
Dover translation). His assumption, which defined what is usually
called standard synchrony, can be described in terms of the following
idealized thought experiment, where the spatial locations *A*
and *B* are fixed locations in some particular, but arbitrary,
inertial (i.e., unaccelerated) frame of reference: Let a light ray,
traveling in vacuum, leave *A* at time *t*1
(as measured by a clock at rest there), and arrive at *B*
coincident with the event *E* at *B*. Let the ray be
instantaneously reflected back to *A*, arriving at time
*t*2. Then standard synchrony is defined by saying
that *E* is simultaneous with the event at *A* that
occurred at time (*t*1 +
*t*2)/2. This definition is equivalent to the
requirement that the one-way speeds of the ray be the same on the two
segments of its round-trip journey between *A* and
*B*.




It is interesting to note (as pointed out by Jammer (2006, 49), in his
comprehensive survey of virtually all aspects of simultaneity) that
something closely analogous to Einstein's definition of standard
simultaneity was used more than 1500 years earlier by St. Augustine in
his *Confessions* (written in 397 CE). He was arguing against
astrology by telling a story of two women, one rich and one poor, who
gave birth simultaneously but whose children had quite different lives
in spite of having identical horoscopes. His method of determining
that the births, at different locations, were simultaneous was to have
a messenger leave each birth site at the moment of birth and travel to
the other, presumably with equal speeds. Since the messengers met at
the midpoint, the births must have been simultaneous. Jammer comments
that this "may well be regarded as probably the earliest
recorded example of an *operational* definition of distant
simultaneity."




The thesis that the choice of standard synchrony is a convention,
rather than one necessitated by facts about the physical universe
(within the framework of the special theory of relativity), has been
argued particularly by Reichenbach (see, for example, Reichenbach
1958, 123-135) and Grunbaum (see, for example,
Grunbaum 1973, 342-368). They argue that the only
nonconventional basis for claiming that two distinct events are not
simultaneous would be the possibility of a causal influence connecting
the events. In the pre-Einsteinian view of the universe, there was no
reason to rule out the possibility of arbitrarily fast causal
influences, which would then be able to single out a unique event
at *A* that would be simultaneous with *E*. In an
Einsteinian universe, however, no causal influence can travel faster
than the speed of light in vacuum, so from the point of view of
Reichenbach and Grunbaum, any event at *A* whose time of
occurrence is in the open interval between *t*1 and
*t*2 could be defined to be simultaneous
with *E*. In terms of the e-notation introduced by
Reichenbach, any event at *A* occurring at a
time *t*1 + e(*t*2 [?]
*t*1), where 0 < e < 1, could be
simultaneous with *E*. That is, the conventionality thesis
asserts that any particular choice of e within its stated
range is a matter of convention, including the choice e=1/2
(which corresponds to standard synchrony). If e differs from
1/2, the one-way speeds of a light ray would differ (in an
e-dependent fashion) on the two segments of its round-trip
journey between *A* and *B*. If, more generally, we
consider light traveling on an arbitrary closed path in
three-dimensional space, then (as shown by Minguzzi 2002,
155-156) the freedom of choice in the one-way speeds of light
amounts to the choice of an arbitrary scalar field (although two
scalar fields that differ only by an additive constant would give the
same assignment of one-way speeds).



It might be argued that the definition of
standard synchrony makes use only of the relation of equality (of the
one-way speeds of light in different directions), so that simplicity
dictates its choice rather than a choice that requires the
specification of a particular value for a parameter. Grunbaum
(1973, 356) rejects this argument on the grounds that, since the
equality of the one-way speeds of light is a convention, this choice
does not simplify the postulational basis of the theory but only gives
a symbolically simpler representation.


## 2. Phenomenological Counterarguments




Many of the arguments against the conventionality thesis make use of
particular physical phenomena, together with the laws of physics, to
establish simultaneity (or, equivalently, to measure the one-way speed
of light). Salmon (1977), for example, discusses a number of such
schemes and argues that each makes use of a nontrivial convention. For
instance, one such scheme uses the law of conservation of momentum to
conclude that two particles of equal mass, initially located halfway
between *A* and *B* and then separated by an explosion,
must arrive at *A* and *B*
simultaneously. Salmon (1977, 273) argues,
however, that the standard formulation of the law of conservation of
momentum makes use of the concept of one-way velocities, which cannot
be measured without the use of (something equivalent to) synchronized
clocks at the two ends of the spatial interval that is traversed;
thus, it is a circular argument to use conservation of momentum to
define simultaneity.




It has been argued (see, for example, Janis 1983, 103-105, and
Norton 1986, 119) that all such schemes for establishing
convention-free synchrony must fail. The argument can be summarized as
follows: Suppose that clocks are set in standard synchrony, and
consider the detailed space-time description of the proposed
synchronization procedure that would be obtained with the use of such
clocks. Next suppose that the clocks are reset in some nonstandard
fashion (consistent with the causal order of events), and consider the
description of the same sequence of events that would be obtained with
the use of the reset clocks. In such a description, familiar laws may
take unfamiliar forms, as in the case of the law of conservation of
momentum in the example mentioned above. Indeed, all of special
relativity has been reformulated (in an unfamiliar form) in terms of
nonstandard synchronies (Winnie 1970a and 1970b). Since the proposed
synchronization procedure can itself be described in terms of a
nonstandard synchrony, the scheme cannot describe a sequence of events
that is incompatible with nonstandard synchrony. A comparison of the
two descriptions makes clear what hidden assumptions in the scheme are
equivalent to standard synchrony. Nevertheless, editors of respected
journals continue to accept, from time to time, papers purporting to
measure one-way light speeds; see, for example, Greaves *et
al*. (2009). Application of the procedure just described shows
where their errors lie.


## 3. Malament's Theorem




For a discussion of various proposals to establish synchrony, see the
supplementary document:



> 
> Transport of Clocks
> 



The only currently discussed proposal is based on a theorem of
Malament (1977), who argues that standard synchrony is the only
simultaneity relation that can be defined, relative to a given
inertial frame, from the relation of (symmetric) causal
connectibility. Let this relation be represented by k, let the
statement that events p and q are simultaneous be represented
by *S*(*p*,*q*), and let the given inertial frame
be specified by the world line, *O*, of some inertial
observer. Then Malament's uniqueness theorem shows that if
*S* is definable from k and *O*, if it is an
equivalence relation, if points *p* on *O* and
*q* not on *O* exist such that
*S*(*p*,*q*) holds, and if *S* is not the
universal relation (which holds for all points), then *S* is
the relation of standard synchrony.




Some commentators have taken Malament's theorem to have settled
the debate on the side of nonconventionality. For example, Torretti
(1983, 229) says, "Malament proved that simultaneity by standard
synchronism in an inertial frame *F* is the *only*
non-universal equivalence between events at different points
of *F* that is definable ('in any sense of
"definable" no matter how weak') in terms of causal
connectibility alone, for a given *F*"; and Norton
(Salmon *et al*. 1992, 222) says, "Contrary to most
expectations, [Malament] was able to prove that the central claim
about simultaneity of the causal theorists of time was false. He
showed that the standard simultaneity relation was the only nontrivial
simultaneity relation definable in terms of the causal structure of a
Minkowski spacetime of special relativity."




Other commentators disagree with such arguments, however.
Grunbaum (2010) has written a detailed critique of Malament's
paper. He first cites Malament's need to postulate that S is an
equivalence relation as a weakness in the argument, a view also
endorsed by Redhead (1993, 114). Grunbaum's main argument,
however, is based on an earlier argument by Janis (1983,
107-109) that Malament's theorem leads to a unique (but
different) synchrony relative to any inertial observer, that this
latitude is the same as that in introducing Reichenbach's e,
and thus Malament's theorem should carry neither more nor less weight
against the conventionality thesis than the argument
(mentioned above in the last paragraph of the
first section of this article) that standard synchrony is the simplest
choice. Grunbaum concludes "that Malament's remarkable
proof has not undermined my thesis that, in the STR, relative
simultaneity is conventional, as contrasted with its
non-conventionality in the Newtonian world, which I have articulated!
Thus, I do not need to retract the actual claim I made in
1963..." Somewhat similar arguments are given by Redhead
(1993, 114) and by Debs and Redhead (2007, 87-92).



For further discussion, see the supplement document:



> 
> Further Discussion of Malament's Theorem
> 


## 4. Other Considerations




Since the conventionality thesis rests upon the existence of a fastest
causal signal, the existence of arbitrarily fast causal signals would
undermine the thesis. If we leave aside the question of causality, for
the moment, the possibility of particles (called tachyons) moving with
arbitrarily high velocities is consistent with the mathematical
formalism of special relativity (see, for example, Feinberg 1967).
Just as the speed of light in vacuum is an upper limit to the possible
speeds of ordinary particles (sometimes called bradyons), it would be
a lower limit to the speeds of tachyons. When a transformation is made
to a different inertial frame of reference, the speeds of both
bradyons and tachyons change (the speed of light in vacuum being the
only invariant speed). At any instant, the speed of a bradyon can be
transformed to zero and the speed of a tachyon can be transformed to
an infinite value. The statement that a bradyon is moving forward in
time remains true in every inertial frame (if it is true in one), but
this is not so for tachyons. Feinberg (1967) argues that this does not
lead to violations of causality through the exchange of tachyons
between two uniformly moving observers because of ambiguities in the
interpretation of the behavior of tachyon emitters and absorbers,
whose roles can change from one to the other under the transformation
between inertial frames. He claims to resolve putative causal
anomalies by adopting the convention that each observer describes the
motion of each tachyon interacting with that observer's apparatus in
such a way as to make the tachyon move forward in time. However, all
of Feinberg's examples involve motion in only one spatial
dimension. Pirani (1970) has given an explicit two-dimensional example
in which Feinberg's convention is satisfied but a tachyon signal is
emitted by an observer and returned to that observer at an earlier
time, thus leading to possible causal anomalies.




A claim that no value of e other than 1/2 is mathematically
possible has been put forward by Zangari (1994). He argues that
spin-1/2 particles (e.g., electrons) must be represented
mathematically by what are known as complex spinors, and that the
transformation properties of these spinors are not consistent with the
introduction of nonstandard coordinates (corresponding to values of
e other than 1/2). Gunn and Vetharaniam (1995), however,
present a derivation of the Dirac equation (the fundamental equation
describing spin-1/2 particles) using coordinates that are consistent
with arbitrary synchrony. They argue that Zangari mistakenly required
a particular representation of space-time points as the only one
consistent with the spinorial description of spin-1/2 particles.




Another argument for standard synchrony has been given by Ohanian (2004),
who bases his considerations on the laws of dynamics. He argues that a
nonstandard choice of synchrony introduces pseudoforces into Newton's
second law, which must hold in the low-velocity limit of special
relativity; that is, it is only with standard synchrony that net force
and acceleration will be proportional. Macdonald (2005) defends the
conventionality thesis against this argument in a fashion analagous to
the argument used by Salmon (mentioned above in
the first paragraph of the second section of this article) against the
use of the law of conservation of momentum to define simultaneity:
Macdonald says, in effect, that it is a convention to require Newton's
laws to take their standard form.




Many of the arguments against conventionality involve viewing the
preferred simultaneity relation as an equivalence relation that is
invariant under an appropriate transformation group. Mamone Capria
(2012) has examined the interpretation of simultaneity as an invariant
equivalence relation in great detail, and argues that it does not have
any bearing on the question of whether or not simultaneity is
conventional in special relativity.




A vigorous defense of conventionality has been offered by Rynasiewicz
(2012). He argues that his approach "has the merit of nailing
the exact sense in which simultaneity is conventional. It is
conventional in precisely the same sense in which the gauge freedom
that arises in the general theory of relativity makes the choice
between diffeomorphically related models conventional." He
begins by showing that any choice of a simultaneity relation is
equivalent to a choice of a velocity in the equation for local time in
H.A. Lorentz's *Versuch* theory (Lorentz 1895). Then, beginning
with Minkowski space with the standard Minkowski metric, he introduces
a diffeomorphism in which each point is mapped to a point with the
same spatial coordinates, but the temporal coordinate is that of a
Lorentzian local time expressed in terms of the velocity as a
parameter. This mapping is not an isometry, for the light cones are
tilted, which corresponds to anisotropic light propagation. He
proceeds to argue, using the hole argument (see, for example, Earman
and Norton 1987) as an analogy, that this parametric freedom is just
like the gauge freedom of general relativity. As the tilting of the
light cones, if projected into a single spatial dimension, would be
equivalent to a choice of Reichenbach's e, it seems that
Rynasiewicz's argument is a generalization and more completely argued
version of the argument given by Janis that is mentioned above in the
third paragraph of Section 3.




The debate about conventionality of simultaneity seems far from
settled, although some proponents on both sides of the argument might
disagree with that statement. The reader wishing to pursue the matter
further should consult the sources listed below as well as additional
references cited in those sources.