Gravitational redshift explained as a Doppler Effect in uniformly accelerated frames

Abstract

Einstein predicted a change in the energy of photons in the proximity of a gravitational field, the change being directly proportional with the distance from the gravitational source. In the early 60’s Pound and Rebka have set to verify Einstein’s prediction. The experiment was reprised with even higher precision by Pound and Snider. Later, Vessot reprised the experiment in space at a much improved precision. The standard explanation of gravitational redshift falls out straight from the Schwarzschild solution of the Einstein Field Equations (EFE). In the following, we will present an approach to the experiment relying on the Einstein Equivalence Principle and on the recently derived expressions of Doppler Effect for uniformly accelerated motion of the source and the receiver. We will conclude with a chapter on the numerical limits of applicability of the described method.