Questioning the Doppler Effect
J.R. Silva Bittencourt
Questioning the Doppler effect J.R. Silva Bittencourt
Whether you are a renowned astronomer or a distracted observer, looking up at the sky at night you’ll be enchanted by the brightness of the stars. As a distracted observer, everything stops there. You need to return to your normal activities. The astronomer, however, wants to go further. Behind his telescope, what use does he has of making considerations about the stars and galaxies they form? The answer is only one: - light (and all other forms of electromagnetic radiation). He believes light travels in a vacuum with fixed and limited velocity, so he looks at stars with the appearance they had in the past. Desperation knocks at the astronomer's door. He needs to know what happens in distances that can not be overcome physically, and the only source of information he has comes to him with immense delay. Until, in 1842, the work of the Austrian physicist Christian Doppler (1803-1853) appears. Doppler studied sound waves, demonstrating that a moving source would affect the frequency of the waves (timbre) if they were received by a fixed observer and outside the system. The French
physicist Antoine Hipolite Fizeau (1819-1896) decided to extend the effect of sound waves to light, considering that for classical physics light would propagate in the form of continuous waves. Although this was later questioned by Planck's ideas with the oscillators and Einstein's theory of the photoelectric effect, astronomers refused to give up the only source of data they had on the distant universe. They continue to believe, still today, that the light of a distant star would cross the emptiness of space in the form of a wave, and without any solution of continuity. If the waves emitted in the Big Bang were continuous, it would be so if you followed them in the direction of the singularity or in the opposite direction. It is true that 50% of the path traveled by cosmic radiation, that is, from the big bang to our days, could only be evaluated indirectly. That is, who gives us the measure of time that separates us from the uniqueness is the light that would already be found in our past, and this would be done by a form of remote tracking. Therefore, the light used is considered to be a "cosmic background radiation". If the light waves were continuous, still, we could artificially shift the beginning of the time counting. That is, although the beginning of time is
always in our position, as isolated observers that we are, it could be moved to the position of any star. In the case of Centaur Next star, landmark zero would be shifted to 4.3 light-years away. Planck argued for the classical wave theory and the concept that light, although quantized, behaved as if it were a wave when moving in a vacuum. This, even though he was revolutionary in demonstrating in his experiments with electromagnetic oscillators that the light would be discontinuous. He demonstrated that atoms would behave as small electromagnetic oscillators, each with a characteristic frequency of oscillation. That is, the energy of the oscillators would be quantized. Oscillators do not radiate energy continuously, but only by means of pulses or "quanta", which are multiples of the quantum. When the quanta are emitted, the oscillator changes to another quantised state. The hydrogen atom, for example, only exists in certain so-called stationary states, during which it radiates nothing. An oscillator does not emit or absorb energy while it remains in one of its quantized or stationary states. It only emits energy when changes state.
Despite quantizing the energy of the oscillators, Planck continued to treat the radiation inside the cavity as if it were an electromagnetic wave. Einstein, in 1905, applied the concept of energy quantization to a new area of physics, the photoelectric effect. The classical wave theory could no longer explain certain effects. It predicted that "the kinetic energy of photoelectrons increases as the light beam becomes more intense". The photoelectric effect has made it evident that energy is independent of the intensity of light. It is from the classical wave theory that "the photoelectric effect should occur at any frequency of incident light, provided that it is sufficiently intense." However, there is a cutoff frequency. For frequencies smaller than this, the photoelectric effect disappears completely, regardless of the intensity of the illumination. The fundamental point of the classical wave theory, put in check by the photoelectric effect, is related to time. It says: "- If the light were less intense there should be a measurable time-lapse, between the moment the light strikes the metal surface and the ejection of the free electron. The electron should, at this time, be sucking energy from the light beam, until it accumulates enough to escape the metal". However, it has not been possible
to measure any time interval between the incidence of light and the ejection of the free electron. When a quantum strikes an electron, both appear simultaneously (Boethe-Geiger, 1928). This detail is fundamental to the observer because, in fact, he does not see the particle directly, but the light scattered through it. The absence of measurable time between the incidence of light and the ejection of the photoelectric would affect his point of view. The observer looks at the sky at night and sees the source of light, as in the case of a star, instantaneously, without depend on the time the light would have taken to move in a vacuum. The most classic example is that of an observer using a microscope to analyze a blade with stained cells, and another observer using a telescope to observe the Moon. Both depend on the local scattering of light quanta, which would totally exclude the time that could be separating the observer from the observed object. Einstein concluded, based on the photoelectric effect, that "the energy of the light beam travels the space concentrated in packets, called photons." In the case of a star, Planck believed that light, although emitted by the source discontinuously, propagated in the vacuum "like an electromagnetic
wave". Einstein suggested that light, as it traverses space, behaves not as a wave but as a particle. This shocked the scientific community at the time, as it hit the Doppler effect in full, throwing a blade of lime over it. The observer's dependence on the local scattering of light quanta could explain the instantaneous observation of the night sky, as the product of a translation of information encoded in light. In spite of the immense delay suggested by the speed with which the light would cross the vacuum, there is no news of the existence of an earlier time, destined to this translation. It is as if the light was always at our entire disposal, to be followed only in the direction of our past. The future does not exist for us, for we would be totally dependent on our memory. One can not think that our consciousness could act in a discontinuous way as suggested by the photoelectric effect, simply because nothing exists outside this consciousness. This would explain the concept of continuous waves, but it would be restricted to the time in the past. It is our memory that would sustain the concept of continuous waves and this became part of our physical reality. Doppler and the velocity of light would be part of this package. With that, time would be a form of exile to
which we would be subjected; which suggests that time would be contained in the isolated observer himself, by exclusion of direct access to the future. For example, the time of 13.7 billion years, which light would have spent after the big bang to reach us in the present, would result from an indirect form of evaluation, and when that time could be measured it would already be considered "a thing of the past". The observer depends on the local scattering of light, emitted by a distant star, to know its existence. Before the light reaches Earth, the star does not exist, although it is there. This light must first be quantized, to become apt to be perceived by our senses. All forms of energy that allow its measurement are quantized. As Planck has shown in his experiments with electromagnetic oscillators, there is no irradiation or energy absorption in the quantization phase. That is, there would be no measurable waves while the oscillator remained in one of its quantized states, hence called "stationary". This dependence of the observer on the wave nature, predicted in the scattering of light after a previous packaging phase, would be a curious alternative to explain Einstein's assertion that, by traversing the vacuum, light could only use its particle-like appearance. In addition, if the corpuscle aspect of
light exists only in the steady state of the particles, it is explained why a particle can not be observed in real time. In other words, what we see is the light scattered by the particle and not itself. The waves, somehow, disturb the particles, generating uncertainty in their position or velocity. The difference of the model presented by the Project of Reverse Sight Theory in relation to the traditional models would be the conclusion that even if the light of a star had moved in the vacuum, at an earlier moment, to the point of view of the observer (and only in that case) the light of the star has always been close to him. Without this, that light could not be quantized, suggesting that this phase would be essentially an intrinsic movement. That is, the quantization would be contained in the observer himself by a principle of exclusion of access, since there would be no irradiation in this phase of quantization. It is as if the quantization of energy was part of the process of forming the observer's memory. Thus, the events themselves would remain outside of this phase, without being accessible directly or in real time. It can not be proved whether quantization is actually contained in the observer, owing to the principle of exclusion of access.
Therefore, it is wiser to think that it would be "virtually" contained. Another remarkable aspect of quantization refers to time. It has already been shown, at the beginning of the 20th century, that the quantization of all forms of energy does not demand time. As we usually evaluate space through electromagnetic radiation, as is the case of the distances that separate us from galaxies, the absence of time in the stationary phase of quantization of light grows in importance. If, in order to see a star, it is enough to raise our heads to the sky in a dark and cloudless night, we’re not taking into account the time that the light emitted by the star would have crossed the space, in an earlier moment. This suggests that the quantization of light energy would be able to reverse the direction of the arrow of time, especially when it comes to our point of view. It would be as if during its packaging the light was returning to the source, a process in which there would be no measurable interval of time, since there would be no exchange of energy and, therefore, would not exist electromagnetic waves that could provide information. Modern theories maintain that the Universe would have expanded, in the moment following the big bang. The main subsidy for the elaboration of these theses is the
cosmic background radiation. There is no other source of information available on a singularity that would have rested 13.7 billion years ago in our past. As the cosmic background radiation first needed to be quantitated to become traceable later, and this would have consumed no measurable time interval, this had two immediate consequences: 1. The behavior of space merged with the behavior of light, no longer allowing direct access to the first. This includes the description of the geometry of space, which has been made through the light; 2. There would have been an apparent reversal in the sense of the arrow of time, at least for the observer's point of view, pointing in an illusory way towards the past; 3. As the observer is dependent on the scattering of light in the post-quantization phase, in order to have an idea of what happens around him, it’s said that the observer is now dependent on his memory. That is, for him there is only what can be remembered. This is a good reason to justify the finding that in post-big bang spacetime, electromagnetic waves would be continuous and would not respect the photoelectric effect. This
would have led us to the natural interpretive error that light and cosmic background radiation could be followed in one direction as well as in the other, linking us directly to past events. For RST (Reverse Sight Theory) the inflationary theories would be a consequence of the necessary phase of quantization of the energy, to which the cosmic radiation had previously been submitted. It is a unanimous conclusion from astronomers that the universe would have expanded continuously after the big bang, in the presence of acceleration of the movement of galaxies. If the expansion had been confused with the retention of time in the energy quantization phase, it would place the big bang in the present of the universe, because the observer would continue to depend on the scattering of the photons of light. The arrow of time would have been reversed in our position as isolated observers, as if during the quantization phase the light was projecting in our past, or returning to the source. Thus, if we submit to the empire of (apparently continuous) electromagnetic radiation to obtain information about the behavior of space, we must remember that it performs a simple harmonic motion, which is composed of two phases. This movement is usually well represented by a rubber
strip. The first stage is equivalent to stretching this strip, while in the second you leave the strip free to relax. In both phases there is the involvement of restorative forces. As already mentioned, the absence of measurable time in the quantization phase has made us confuse the behavior of space with that of light itself. Who would behave like a rubber strip would be light and not space. That space would have been placed virtually out of the process. But, taking into account this fusion, when the strip was stretched the force would point in the opposite direction to that of the stretching. As it is a negative work, if the movement existed at that stage it should be retrograde. The galaxies should slow down. This situation would be the same predicted in an implosion. Because it was the phase of quantization of light energy, the absence of measurable time would have removed from space its ability to directly communicate changes in its geometry. Even if quantization were involved with the generation of a curvature in space, we would not have been able to know this directly, because we were forced to wait for the phase of scattering of the photons, which will be accompanied by apparently continuous waves. It would be equivalent to the second phase of the
harmonic movement of light, when the elastic would be left free to relax. It is here that one notices the presence of acceleration of movement. This should be accompanied by contraction of the length of the rubber strip, but what is seen in Doppler practice is the presence of acceleration in the expansion, or in the stretching phase of the rubber strip. Without the existence of measurable time in the first phase of the harmonic motion of radiation, the scattering of light would have dislodged the contraction of space, and revealed the expansion as if it were happening in real time. Thus, in spite of the exclusion between the phases of harmonic motion, the two would have become virtually continuous due to the exclusion process, generated by the timelessness of the energy quantization phase. The attitude of considering that space would behave similarly to a rubber strip, has already been raised by much of the scientific community. The model suggests that during the expansion of the universe the galaxies would not abandon their positions in space. They would move away from each other, faster and faster, because of the stretching of the space that welcomes them. RST believes in the possibility of an interpretative error in this model, because it ignores the quantization
phase to which the cosmic energy would have been subjected before it became traceable or became background radiation. It is our dependence on the constant presence of light that would support our distrust. Without the light we would have no news of the existence of the galaxies. As we have already said, since we did not count on the existence of measurable time during the expansionary phase, which would be confused with the timelessness of the phase of quantization of light, the behavior of space would have been mixed or fused to the behavior of light, which we use to describe the geometry of space. As the stretching phase would now correspond to the first phase of the Simple Harmonic Motion of light, we would have to take into account that the work performed at that stage would be negative, with an increase of the elastic potential energy to the detriment of the kinetics. That is, the movement would tend to collapse, as would happen in an implosion. If the universe were at that moment in continuous expansion, the description of the event through the light should suggest that the galaxies were entering into retrograde motion, which is not the case in Doppler practice. If we take into account that during the stretching of space there would be a complementary contraction of time,
we would inadvertently focus on the concept of timing of the quantization phase of light energy, which would not be mere coincidence. Thus, we might suppose that the expansionary phase of the universe would be acting, in its own time, as an immense eraser of information. That does not mean the information was not there, though. This problem, as noted, is affected by the existence of the isolated observer, who uses cosmic radiation as a source of information. Because he is dependent on his memory, and consequently dependent on the direct measurability of time, the expansion could only be evaluated outside its own time. We might ask: - Is this not exactly what happens in practice ? If space has been stretching over 13.7 billion years, as suggested by the cosmic background radiation, time would be so tight in the present that we would not be able to remember the expansion. There would have to be a reversal in the direction of the arrow of time. Although the real movement of time is always in the direction of the future, it is only from our past that we can remember. Extrapolating this to our rubber strip of space, the first phase of the harmonic motion of light, that of stretching, would be in direct dependence on the second phase to have its existence revealed. The main feature of
the second stage is the relaxation of the rubber strip, in the presence of acceleration of movement. Due to the lack of measurable time in the previous phase, stretching information would be available in the next phase, where contraction of the rubber length is predicted. This would have mixed the effects of the two distinct phases of the harmonic motion of the light: - When revealed late, the stretching of the space (1st Phase) would be accompanied by acceleration of the movement, characteristic of the second phase. This is the picture revealed by the Doppler effect. So the claim that galaxies would move away from each other as space stretched, even without abandoning their real positions, could be rewritten. The RST Project postulates that when evaluated by the light they emit for space, galaxies, in fact, seem to move away from each other, which can not be confirmed. This is due to the fact that this type of separation would be a consequence of the retention of time in the quantization phase of the light energy. The curvature of space would be a kind of simulation of quantization, linked to that phase. To summarize the final effect, resulting from the mixing of the two phases of the harmonic motion of light, we could say that galaxies move away from each other, faster and faster, because the elastic of
space would be contracting in the present of the universe. That is, the second phase of the SHM of light would account for the first phase, but out of its own time. This model corresponds to that of a static universe which, to be perceived by the observer and his memory, would have entered into continuous motion, isolating the space in the process. On the other hand, it suggests that the observer would have been virtually exiled in the past, because he could not interact with the real universe in real time. This is what the Heisenberg Principle of Uncertainty predicts. In this case, the present of the universe is placed relatively in the future, when it comes to the observer's point of view. The fact that the arrow of time would always point in the direction of the future is confirmed, while suggesting that the observer would find himself on a journey that predicts his return to the present moment of the universe, from which he should never have gone out. Another common way of representing the harmonic motion of light is the mass-spring assembly. We have a block attached to a spring and this spring attached to a fixed end. When the spring is stretched, we have the first phase of the SHM, where there is the predominance of elastic potential energy. The spring is drawn away from the fixed
end. The resultant force points in the opposite direction to that of the spring stretching, performing a negative work. In the case of the interaction of the observer with the cosmic radiation, we would always place the observer at the fixed end of the set, in this case the Earth, because that is where he will issue his point of view. Placed at the free end the source, as is the case of a star, can not issue any point of view. Although the stretching of the spring is evident in the set, in the case of the distant galaxies it is not possible to have accessible information, at least until the moment the light reaches the Earth. Therefore, stretching the spring of space would be the most adequate representation of the quantization phase of light energy, since it does not demand measurable time. We must remember that there is no motion in the absence of time, as predicted by the concept of instantaneous velocity of a particle. In addition, without time there is no memory. The future ceases to be part of the reality of the observer because, for him, there is only what can be remembered. Quantization would be followed by the contraction of time and the retention of light. Like a stretched spring oscillator, a rough representation of the interaction between light and space, would remain in a steady state. In the first
phase of simple harmonic motion a star would not emit or receive energy of any kind. In the meantime, the observer can not yet remember the source, which means that even though it was there, the star could not yet be seen. It would be necessary for the space spring to enter its second phase, that of relaxation. All this considering that light and space would form a whole or a single thing. This second phase would be equivalent to the scattering of the photons, allowing the observer to see the star instantaneously, without considering whether or not there had been an anterior displacement of the light in space. The arrow of time seems to undergo an abrupt reversal in its direction, beginning to point continuously towards the observer's past. The lightspeed and Doppler packets, incubated in the first phase of the set, unfold instantly, allowing the tracking of information in the past. When it comes to the measurability of time, and its retention in the quantization phase, we can suggest that there would be one moment before, one during and one after the phase of scattering of the photons. In the case of the stars one could not measure movement in the absence of directly measurable time. Therefore, the contraction of time in the quantization phase of light would suggest that, while
stretching, space would curve. In the case of the first phase of the SHM, the retention of light would appear to be the result of the negative stretching work of the space spring. Without the information carried by the light at this stage, the observer could not remember the expansion of space. This would be in accordance with the suggestion of many astronomers that the big bang could have resulted of the collapse of a massive body, forming a black hole. Let us quote John Gribbin, who tells us that the explosion of the universe from the big bang is equivalent, from the point of view of general relativity theory, to a temporal inversion or specular image of the gravitational collapse of a very large mass body, forming a black hole. Gravitational collapse equals an implosion or the result of a negative force work. Therefore, it would agree with the contraction of time in the first phase of harmonic motion of the radiation, our quantization phase. It is known that this happens at the subatomic level of matter, because time tends to contract until it reaches limits that will no longer allow its measurability. Thus, because particles can not be remembered, even been there, they disappear from our vision and escape apprehension by our most sensitive methods of observation.
If there had not been a time reversal, with space contracting since then, we would not have known by cosmic radiation if at some earlier time the universe would have been expanding. For the observer, unfortunately or not, the arrow of time has already been inverted and pointing in the direction of the past, since from his infancy. With this, his consciousness began to act without solution of apparent continuity, since nothing exists outside of it, giving support to the concept of continuous electromagnetic waves. The information provided in the second phase of the harmonic motion of the light emitted by the stars, transformed that light into a cosmic background radiation as it was projected into our past. Unexpectedly, the information unfolded by the continuous dilation of time suggests to the observer that space would be in full expansionary phase, and in the presence of continuous acceleration of motion. The subtlety of disagreement with reality would be in the finding that the expansion could not be accompanied by acceleration of the motion of galaxies, since the stretching of space would be the result of a negative work. This placement only makes sense because it would not be space that would communicate
inflation but cosmic radiation, which we track after the specular inversion followed by the scattering of the photons of light. Only then, would it have become a background radiation. If the contraction of space allowed us to know of the expansion, in an indirect way, this would occur outside the real time of the event, becoming part of our memory. In addition, it would mix the effects of two completely different phases in the harmonic motion of light. Santa Maria, RS, Brazil, 03/13/2019.