Quote:
Originally Posted by RascalPuff  Dear Bob:
I had in mind, regarding Doppler effect, Einstein's application of Lorentz transformations to matter (in motion) itself. Does that make a difference?
Best regards,
- RP |
Hi RP,
There are two aspects to this in my oppinion. Looking edge on at not too distant pinwheel galaxies they generally tend to be blue shifted on one side and red shifted on the other, indicating their rotation. So the doppler effect does apply to relative motion. It may be possible to relate the lengthening (red) or contraction (blue)of wavelenths to time dilation using the Lorentz transformations but the red shift effect is assumed to stem from the wavelenth becoming lengthened because of recessional velocity alone, (or the opposite for the blue shift) just as sound waves change their pitch when a vehicle is approaching or leaving. The wavelength gets drawn out with recessional motion and shortened with approaching motion.
The thing about the expansion of the spacetime continuum itself is that the shift of light from very distant galaxies to the red end of the spectrum where wavelengths are longer assumes that their matter itself is not expanding in spatial volume. Are there two kinds of space? Galaxies may be eternal whereas the star systems that constitute them are born and die. In distant galaxies the light that we see today may be from stars that existed before our solar system was born, so this fact of great distance alone necessarily introduces synchronous distortions in a discontinuous universe that also shifts the light spectra of distant galaxies toward the red end of the spectrum. There are ambiguities involved that are not properly recognized. The method of delineating the cosmic order on my website has never been explored before and it must find confirmation in phenomenal experience. It offers alternate explanations to many phenomena without need to invent ad hoc fixes. Hope this helps.
Regards,
Bob