A Laboratory Experiment for Astronomers ("Look-Back")

On Mon, 15 Sep 14 20:17:26 GMT, Phillip Helbig wrote:
writes:
As a gedankenexperiment, let's look at two mathematical spheres, one
larger than the other. The larger sphere has a lower SA-to-V ratio
than the other. This is an intrinsic difference. Now place each
sphere into its own empty universe. The spheres haven't changed, one
still has a different intrinsic nature to the other, but we have no
metric to distinguish them. So I suggest we need a universal
parameter of "scale" to account for this -- which would be a
characteristic or dimension of the space-time manifold.

Interesting concept. Julian Barbour has also been investigating scale
recently. Check up on his recent stuff.

Thanks for that reference, Phil, I've been reading up on his very
interesting work on "scale". However, he seems to view "scale" as
operating only on the xyz dimensions (although I haven't read deeply
enough to be sure) whereas I'd say it operates on the space-time
manifold so that the rate of time flow is equally impacted. And that
brings me to a concept that can be experimentally tested.

As I've posted on other occasions, a registering photon is a perfect
archive of itself at the time of emission (although Doppler effects
apply of course). Its state at the time of emission includes the
universal parameters operating at the time of its emission. So a z=1
photon should present those parameters, available for us to decode.
We currently interpret redshift as Doppler-like due to an expanding
universe, etc etc.

Julian Barbour points out that if scale is relative as it should be
(and he has published multiple papers which generalize GR into a
scale-relative construct from which GR can be derived in intuitive
ways) then we shouldn't be able to see the universe expand, because
scale would increase with it and all would look unchanging to us.
This is because he hasn't taken "Look-Back" into account, that e.g.
z=1 photons show us the older conditions.

If Barbour's well-published "relative scale" is operative, then z=1
photons were emitted under an earlier "scale" state, and it is
possible that they are travelling at speeds slower than c -- such as
c/2 for z=1 photons. All of our measurements of c have been done on
local photons. Does anyone really know how fast the z=1 photons are
travelling -- if they are travelling at c/2, then that fully explains
the redshift and kills the "expanding universe" stone cold dead.

So here is a laboratory experiment for intrepid astronomers -- find
out how fast those z=1 photons are travelling! How can it be done?
Do we have any way of measuring the speed of a photon, or can we only
measure time from emission to registration? As John Wheeler states,
"we have no right to speak of the attributes of a photon before it has
registered", so doesn't that include its speed?

Who can design such a laboratory experiment?

cheers,
Eric Flesch