Relativistic Doppler Effect and The Principle of Relativity: W. Engelhardt

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Apeiron
, Vol. 10, No. 4, October 2003 29
Relativistic Doppler Effectand the Principle of Relativity
W. Engelhardt
AbstractThe frequency shifts predicted by the ‘relativistic’ Dopplereffect are derived in the photon picture of light. It turnsout that, in general, the results do not depend exclusivelyon the relative velocity between observer and light source.In this respect, the relativistic Doppler effect is not distinctfrom the classical one, where the shifts are also differentdepending on whether the source or the observer moves.The ‘relativistic’ formulae for these two cases have beenconfirmed by experiment and are described in many text-books. It was, however, not recognized that they are atvariance with Einstein’s relativity principle extended toelectromagnetic waves.
Keywords 
: Relativity, Doppler Effect, Aberration
private address: Fasaneriestrasse8, D-80636unchen,Germany, wolfgangw.engelhardt@t-online.depostal address: Max-Planck-Institut f¨ur Plasmaphysik,D-85741 Garching, Wolfgang.Engelhardt@ipp.mpg.de
c
2003 C. Roy Keys Inc. – http://redshift.vif.com
 
Apeiron
, Vol. 10, No. 4, October 2003 30
I Introduction
When a wave with angular frequency
 ω
 and phase velocity
c
 propagates in a medium, an observer moving with velocity
 v
parallel to
 c
 experiences a shifted frequency
 ω
1
 =
 ω
 (1
v/c
).When the source oscillating with frequency
 ω
 moves with veloc-ity
 v
 away from the observer, who is at rest in the medium, hewill also measure a shifted frequency
 ω
2
 =
 ω/
(1 +
 v/c
) which is,however, different from
 ω
1
. These frequency shifts are known as‘classical Doppler effect’ and may be observed in sound waves,for example. Because of the intervening medium, they do notmerely depend on the relative velocity between observer andsource, in contrast to other mechanical phenomena such as col-lision processes between material bodies which, in Newtonianmechanics, depend only on relative motion.Electromagnetic waves share with sound the property thattheir propagation velocity is independent of the motion of thesource, as Einstein postulated in 1905 [1]. He formulated inthe same paper a second postulate, his ‘extended principle of relativity’, namely that all physical phenomena, including theelectromagnetic ones, should only depend on relative velocities,as far as constant motion is concerned. From these postulateshe deduced the Lorentz transformation, which led to the conse-quence that the velocity of light is constant in all inertial sys-tems, regardless how they move relatively to each other.It is obvious that Einstein’s postulates are not compatiblewith a medium (‘ether’) theory of light. If both postulates arerealized in nature, the Doppler effect of light must distinguishitself from that of sound, insofar as the frequency shift of lightcan only depend on the relative velocity between source andc
2003 C. Roy Keys Inc. – http://redshift.vif.com
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Apeiron
, Vol. 10, No. 4, October 2003 31
observer. Amazingly, the new ‘relativistic’ Doppler formulae,which are derived from the Lorentz transformation in textbooks,do not have this property: As in the case of sound, there is stilla difference depending on whether the observer moves and thesource is at rest, or whether the source moves and the observeris at rest. Even more surprising, the formulae applying to thedifferent situations have been checked by experiment to someextent and were found to be correct within experimental error.As far as we can see, it was not recognized that these resultscast doubt on the validity of Einstein’s relativity principle withregard to the physics of electromagnetic waves.In this paper the formulae for the relativistic Doppler effectare derived without using the Lorentz transformation (SectionII). This can be done in the photon picture of light in combina-tion with the relativistic modification of Newtonian mechanicsapplied to detector and source. We find indeed different fre-quency shifts depending on whether the observer moves or thesource. In Section III these results are compared with those de-duced by Einstein from the Lorentz transformation. It turns outthat there is practical agreement with the formulae derived inSection II. In Section IV the conclusion drawn from the Lorentztransformation that a wave front ‘appears’ tilted, if there is arelative velocity between observer and source, is scrutinized andfound to be untenable. In Section V consequences of our analysisfor the principle of relativity and for the Lorentz transformationare discussed.c
2003 C. Roy Keys Inc. – http://redshift.vif.com
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Apeiron
, Vol. 10, No. 4, October 2003 32
II Doppler effect derived in the photon pictureof light
Without using the Lorentz transformation, the Doppler ef-fect can be explained in the photon picture which was estab-lished by the Planck-Einstein quantum theory of light. Accord-ing to this model the energy of a photon is:
 =
 
 ω
 (1)and its momentum:
 p
 =
 
 ω/c
 (2)For a body with finite mass the relativistically modified formulaeof Newtonian mechanics apply:
 =
 mc
2
(3)
  p
 =
 mv
 (4)
m
 =
 m
0
 
1
|
v
|
2
/c
2
(5)They are valid as long as the De Broglie wavelength of a movingbody is small compared to its dimensions. The rest-mass
 m
0
takes into account any internal energy which may be of kineticor potential form.Let us assume that a detector with mass
 m
 moves with veloc-ity
 v
 in x-direction and absorbs a photon with total momentum
 p
, as depicted in Figure 1. The momentum balance before andafter absorption yields:
 p
 cos
α
 +
 mv
 =
 m
v
x
 (6)
 p
 sin
α
 =
 m
v
y
 (7)c
2003 C. Roy Keys Inc. – http://redshift.vif.com
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