Gravity and red shift?

Gravity does indeed redshift light and it is measureable, there are numerous astronomy books dealing with it. Quasars are difficult to interpret since there is controversy over how far away they actually are.

Gordon, that's a well known effect.

The general formula is f₁/f₂=<img src=sqrroot.gif border=0 align=middle>(g_00;2/g_00;1), g₀₀ is the time component of the metric tensor.

Thanks for your responses. In due course, I found that there was a famous experiment, the Pound-Rebka experiment done in 1959 at Harvard in which the effect was measured using laser beams.

I also found some discussion saying that Hoyle had sought to explain the redshift of quasar 3C 273 in terms of a gravtitational redshift. However, it seems that the idea was abandoned.

It would be interesting to take one of Arp's systems where there's a gas connection between the quasar and a galaxy, and assume that the galaxy has a distance redshift equal to the galaxy it's connected to. We could then take the remaining redshift to be an intrinsic gravitational redshift...

Gordon

Gordon J. Hogenson

Gorden, Have you found any data that indicates quasars are near the galaxies in the field they are often found around? I am always asking about this and no one seems to have any idea. As for gravity redshift I suspect the Hubble redshift is caused by the total gravity of the universe and should be stated as ~one nanometer per second per second rather than as it is stated.

It was my understanding that it is Arp's claim that quasars are often directly associated with the galaxies they appear next to. He has supplied numerous examples of quasars with apparent streams of material connecting to a nearby galaxy that has a vastly different redshift. His book "Seeing Red" is devoted to this very topic.

Yes, "Seeing Red" by Halton Arp has the info on many systems where associations between low redshift galaxies and high redshift quasars are seen:

Markarian 474/NGC5682 and Quasar BSO1
Separation: 1.6 arcmin
Probability: 5 x 10^-3

NGC4651 and Quasar 3C275.1
Separation: 3.5 arcmin
Probability: 3 x 10^-3

NGC3067 and Quasar 3C232
Separation: 1.9 arcmin
Probability: 3 x 10^-4

NGC5832 and Quasar 3C309.1
Separation: 6.2 arcmin
Probability: 7x10^-4

NGC4319 and Quasar Markarian 205
Separation: 0.7 arcmin
Probability: 2 x 10^-5

That's from a table on page 23 of Seeing Red. The book goes into detail, showing plates that reveal that not only are the galaxies associated with the quasars, but that the quasars are connected via X-ray emitting jets to the centers of these galaxies.

Can you explain the idea about redshift being caused by the total gravity of the universe? That's the first I've heard of that idea.


Gordon J. Hogenson