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Volume 13: Pages 593-596, 2000

Defect Masses in the Gravitational Field and Redshift of Atomic and Nuclear Radiation Spectra

Kh M. Beshtoev

Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Joliot‐Curie 6, 141980 Dubna, Moscow region, Russia

It is shown that the radiation spectrum (or energy levels) of atoms (or nuclei) in the gravitational field has a redshift since the effective mass of radiating electrons (or nucleons) changes in this field. This redshift is equal to the redshift of the radiation spectrum in the gravitational field measured in existing experiments. The same shift must arise when the photon (or γ quantum) is passing through the gravitational field if it participates in gravitational interactions (the photon has no rest mass). The absence of the double effect in the experiments probably means that photons (or γ quanta) are passing through the gravitational field without interactions.

Keywords: gravitational field, redshift, photon, γ quantum, defect mass, atomic radiation spectrum, nuclear radiation spectrum, gravitational interaction, rest mass

Received: May 16, 2000; Published online: December 15, 2008