Astronomical time-of-flight photon speedometer

J B Miller; T E Miller; M J Hoffert; L A Dingle; R Harwell; E Hayes

doi:10.1063/1.4986226

Astronomical time-of-flight photon speedometer

Rev Sci Instrum. 2017 Sep;88(9):094501. doi: 10.1063/1.4986226.

Authors

J B Miller¹, T E Miller², M J Hoffert³, L A Dingle³, R Harwell³, E Hayes³

Affiliations

¹ Chemistry Department-MS5413, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan 49008, USA.
² BlueRad, 108 Titleist Drive, Bluefield, Virginia 24605, USA.
³ Tierra Astronomical Institute, 2364 S. Annadel, Rowland Heights, California 91748, USA.

PMID: 28964243
DOI: 10.1063/1.4986226

Abstract

A dual-band, fiber-optic, photon time-of-flight instrument was developed. Its design was optimized for measuring the velocity of visible photons emanating from relatively dim astronomical sources (apparent magnitude m>12), such as distant galaxies and quasars. We report the first direct photon group velocity measurements for extragalactic objects. The photon group velocity is found to be 3.00±0.03×10⁸ ms^-1 and is invariant, within experimental error, over the range of redshifts measured (0≤z≤1.33). This measurement provides additional validation of general relativity and is consistent with the Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker and hyperbolic anti-de Sitter metrics but not with the elliptical de Sitter metric.