Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Redshift and Deflection of Photons by Gravitation: A Comparison of Relativistic and Newtonian Treatments

Journal Article · · American Journal of Physics (U.S.)
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1119/1.1970075· OSTI ID:4083273
Gravitational redshift of photons from a star and gravitational bending of the path of photons grazing the sun can be derived by using only Newton's laws and the idea of a photon as a particle of mass hv/c2. The difference between the relativistic and Newtonian equations for gravitational redshift is too small to be detected and, therefore, gravitational redshift does not provide experimental verification of the general theory of relativity. On the other hand, a Newtonian treatment of gravitational bending of the path of photons gives only half the true amount of total deflection derived by Einstein in 1915 using general relativity. The case of gravitational bending is treated in some detail.
Research Organization:
City Univ. of New York, New York
NSA Number:
NSA-18-014705
OSTI ID:
4083273
Journal Information:
American Journal of Physics (U.S.), Journal Name: American Journal of Physics (U.S.) Vol. Vol: 32; ISSN AJPIA
Country of Publication:
Country unknown/Code not available
Language:
English

Similar Records

Post-post-Newtonian deflection of light by the Sun
Journal Article · Sun Dec 14 23:00:00 EST 1980 · Phys. Rev., D; (United States) · OSTI ID:6739165

Gravitational redshift of gravitational clocks
Journal Article · Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 1984 · Ann. Phys. (N.Y.); (United States) · OSTI ID:6732859

Second-order contribution to the gravitational deflection of light
Journal Article · Sun Dec 14 23:00:00 EST 1980 · Phys. Rev., D; (United States) · OSTI ID:7023156