One of the hardest aspects to grasp about relativity theory is the question of whether an event “looks as if” it is doing something, or whether it “actually is” doing something.
Take, for instance, the classic twin paradox of relativity theory in which there are twins who wear identical high-precision wrist watches. One of them rockets off to Alpha Centauri at relativistic speeds and returns while the other twin stays on Earth. Each twin sees the other twin’s clock running slowly because of relativistic time dilation. Yet when they get back together and, standing side-by-side, they compare their watches—the twin who went to Alpha Centauri is actually younger than the other, despite the paradox. The relativistic effect of time dilation is “real”, not just apparent, regardless of whether they come back together to do the comparison.
Yet this understanding of relativistic effects took many years, even decades, to gain acceptance after Einstein proposed them. He was aware himself that key experiments were required to prove that relativistic effects are real and not just apparent.
Einstein and the Transverse Doppler Effect
In 1905 Einstein used his new theory of special relativity to predict observable consequences that included relativistic velocity addition and a general treatment of the relativistic Doppler effect [1]. This included the effects of time dilation in addition to the longitudinal effect of the source chasing the wave. Time dilation produced a correction to Doppler’s original expression for the longitudinal effect that became significant at speeds approaching the speed of light. More significantly, it predicted a transverse Doppler effect for a source moving along a line perpendicular to the line of sight to an observer. This effect had not been predicted either by Christian Doppler (1803 – 1853) or by Woldemar Voigt (1850 – 1919).
( Read article in Physics Today on the history of the Doppler effect [2] )
Despite the generally positive reception of Einstein’s theory of special relativity, some of its consequences were anathema to many physicists at the time. A key stumbling block was the question whether relativistic effects, like moving clocks running slowly, were only apparent, or were actually real, and Einstein had to fight to convince others of its reality. When Johannes Stark (1874 – 1957) observed Doppler line shifts in ion beams called “canal rays” in 1906 (Stark received the 1919 Nobel prize in part for this discovery) [3], Einstein promptly published a paper suggesting how the canal rays could be used in a transverse geometry to directly detect time dilation through the transverse Doppler effect [4]. Thirty years passed before the experiment was performed with sufficient accuracy by Herbert Ives and G. R. Stilwell in 1938 to measure the transverse Doppler effect [5]. Ironically, even at this late date, Ives and Stilwell were convinced that their experiment had disproved Einstein’s time dilation by supporting Lorentz’ contraction theory of the electron. The Ives-Stilwell experiment was the first direct test of time dilation, followed in 1940 by muon lifetime measurements [6].
A) Transverse Doppler Shift Relative to Emission Angle
The Doppler effect varies between blue shifts in the forward direction to red shifts in the backward direction, with a smooth variation in Doppler shift as a function of the emission angle. Consider the configuration shown in Fig. 1 for light emitted from a source moving at speed v and emitting at an angle θ0 in the receiver frame. The source moves a distance vT in the time of a single emission cycle (assume a harmonic wave). In that time T (which is the period of oscillation of the light source — or the period of a clock if we think of it putting out light pulses) the light travels a distance cT before another cycle begins (or another pulse is emitted).
[ See YouTube video on the derivation of the transverse Doppler Effect.]
The observed wavelength in the receiver frame is thus given by
where T is the emission period of the moving source. Importantly, the emission period is time dilated relative to the proper emission time of the source
Therefore,
This expression can be evaluated for several special cases:
a) θ0 = 0 for forward emission
which is the relativistic blue shift for longitudinal motion in the direction of the receiver.
b) θ0 = π for backward emission
which is the relativistic red shift for longitudinal motion away from the receiver
c) θ0 = π/2 for transverse emission
This transverse Doppler effect for emission at right angles is a red shift, caused only by the time dilation of the moving light source. This is the effect proposed by Einstein and observed by Stark that proved moving clocks tick slowly. But it is not the only way to view the transverse Doppler effect.
B) Transverse Doppler Shift Relative to Angle at Reception
A different option for viewing the transverse Doppler effect is the angle to the moving source at the moment that the light is detected. The geometry of this configuration relative to the previous is illustrated in Fig. 2.
The transverse distance to the detection point is
The length of the line connecting the detection point P with the location of the light source at the moment of detection is (using the law of cosines)
Combining with the first equation gives
An equivalent expression is obtained as
Note that this result, relating θ1 to θ0, is independent of the distance to the observation point.
When θ1 = π/2, then
yielding
for which the Doppler effect is
which is a blue shift. This creates the unexpected result that sin θ0 = π/2 produces a red shift, while sin θ1 = π/2 produces a blue shift. The question could be asked: which one represents time dilation? In fact, it is sin θ0 = π/2 that produces time dilation exclusively, because in that configuration there is no foreshortening effect on the wavelength–only the emission time.
C) Compromise: The Null Transverse Doppler Shift
The previous two configurations each could be used as a definition for the transverse Doppler effect. But one gives a red shift and one gives a blue shift, which seems contradictory. Therefore, one might try to strike a compromise between these two cases so that sin θ1 = sin θ0, and the configuration is shown in Fig. 3.
This is the case when θ1 + θ2 = π. The sines of the two angles are equal, yielding
and
which is solved for
Inserting this into the Doppler equation gives
where the Taylor’s expansion of the denominator (at low speed) cancels the numerator to give zero net Doppler shift. This compromise configuration represents the condition of null Doppler frequency shift. However, for speeds approaching the speed of light, the net effect is a lengthening of the wavelength, dominated by time dilation, causing a red shift.
D) Source in Circular Motion Around Receiver
An interesting twist can be added to the problem of the transverse Doppler effect: put the source or receiver into circular motion, one about the other. In the case of a source in circular motion around the receiver, it is easy to see that this looks just like case A) above for θ0 = π/2, which is the red shift caused by the time dilation of the moving source
However, there is the possible complication that the source is no longer in an inertial frame (it experiences angular acceleration) and therefore it is in the realm of general relativity instead of special relativity. In fact, it was Einstein’s solution to this problem that led him to propose the Equivalence Principle and make his first calculations on the deflection of light by gravity. His solution was to think of an infinite number of inertial frames, each of which was instantaneously co-moving with the same linear velocity as the source. These co-moving frames are inertial and can be analyzed using the principles of special relativity. The general relativistic effects come from slipping from one inertial co-moving frame to the next. But in the case of the circular transverse Doppler effect, each instantaneously co-moving frame has the exact configuration as case A) above, and so the wavelength is red shifted exactly by the time dilation.
E) Receiver in Circular Motion Around Source
Now flip the situation and consider a moving receiver orbiting a stationary source.
With the notion of co-moving inertial frames now in hand, this configuration is exactly the same as case B) above, and the wavelength is blue shifted according to the equation
caused by foreshortening.
By David D. Nolte, June 3, 2021
New from Oxford Press: The History of Light and Interference (2023)
Read about the physics and history of light and optics.
References
[1] A. Einstein, “On the electrodynamics of moving bodies,” Annalen Der Physik, vol. 17, no. 10, pp. 891-921, Sep (1905)
[3] J. Stark, W. Hermann, and S. Kinoshita, “The Doppler effect in the spectrum of mercury,” Annalen Der Physik, vol. 21, pp. 462-469, Nov 1906.
[4] A. Einstein, “Possibility of a new examination of the relativity principle,” Annalen Der Physik, vol. 23, no. 6, pp. 197-198, May (1907)
[5] H. E. Ives and G. R. Stilwell, “An experimental study of the rate of a moving atomic clock,” Journal of the Optical Society of America, vol. 28, p. 215, 1938.
[6] B. Rossi and D. B. Hall, “Variation of the Rate of Decay of Mesotrons with Momentum,” Physical Review, vol. 59, pp. 223–228, 1941.
Galileo Unbound 