Issue |
Europhys. Lett.
Volume 63, Number 5, September 2003
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 653 - 659 | |
Section | General | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/epl/i2003-00587-x | |
Published online | 01 November 2003 |
The Pioneer riddle, the quantum vacuum and the variation of the light velocity
Departamento de Física Aplicada III, Universidad Complutense 28040 Madrid, Spain
Corresponding author: afr@fis.ucm.es
Received:
13
November
2002
Accepted:
27
June
2003
It is shown that the same phenomenological Newtonian model
recently proposed, which accounts for the cosmological evolution
of the fine-structure constant, suggests furthermore an
explanation of the unmodelled acceleration of the Pioneer 10/11 spaceships
reported by Anderson et al. in 1998. In the view presented here,
the permittivity and permeability of the empty space are decreasing
adiabatically, and the light is accelerating therefore, as a
consequence of the progressive attenuation of the quantum vacuum
due to the combined effect of its gravitational interaction with
all the expanding universe and the fourth Heisenberg relation. It
is argued that the spaceships might not have any extra
acceleration (but would follow instead the unchanged Newton
laws), the observed effect being due to an adiabatic acceleration
of the light equal to
, which has the same
observational radio signature as the anomalous acceleration of the
Pioneers.
PACS: 04.80.Cc – Experimental tests of gravitational theories / 95.35.+d – Dark matter (stellar, interstellar, galactic, and cosmological) / 95.55.Pe – Lunar, planetary, and deep-space probes
© EDP Sciences, 2003
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