Dear Christi,
Thanks for reading and commenting in detail. As I note, SR is more complex than Lorentz, due to ontology of Minkowski. Lorentz doesn't act on 4D 'bodies' but on every point in space. I've shown 'apparent' length contraction [which is simply Doppler in (3+1)D space] in my ref 8.
I've looked at Petkov and he several times states that Minkowski in 1908 based his claims on 'experiments', as if that makes it unquestioned. I believe, based on other experiments [Michelson-Gale] that light propagates through local gravity, in which case the 'ether wind' would be almost zero, far below the resolution of the MM experiments. Einstein said that ether would destroy his theory, and only ten years later Einstein believed in ether, and did so til his death. He stated that light cannot propagate without a field.
Petkov multiple times references pre-1908 experiments as basis of Minkowski, which gravity as ether demolishes. He also talks about length contraction, which has never been directly measured or experimentally proved. Petkov believes experiments 'prove' Minkowski, but I have 57 pages of analysis of experiments in my ref 11 that argues otherwise.
I believe my analysis of the velocity law [which many people, including Weinberg, deny] is novel, so that formed the basis of my essay. It is impossible in 9 pages to convince someone who believes in special relativity, but I have written over 100 pages in last year or so that might convince you, if you had time to read them. It's not as simple as it's made out to be -- one reason that Found. of Physics published 3 papers in Nov 2019 discussing problems with special relativity, and concluded that the 4D vs (3+1)D issue is under-determined in special relativity.
You may have missed it, but I have recently derived 'clock slowing' [time dilation] in absolute time and space, yielding exactly the slowing predicted by relativity. That is the first alternative explanation in 115 years, and seems worth thinking about.
For all the known reasons, my view is not welcome in academia, but I am completely convinced that most treatments of special relativity mix 4D and (3+1)D ontology in analyzing specific instances. That is not physically kosher, but it is the way it's been done for a century.
Thanks again for advancing the discussion.
Best regards,
Edwin Eugene Klingman