Shapiro time delay

The Shapiro time delay effect, or gravitational time delay effect, is one of the four classic solar system tests of general relativity. Radar signals passing near a massive object take slightly longer to travel to a target and longer to return than it would if the mass of the object were not present.

History

The time delay effect was first noticed in 1964, by Irwin I. Shapiro. Shapiro proposed an observational test of his prediction: bounce radar beams off the surface of Venus and Mercury, and measure the round trip travel time. When the Earth, Sun, and Venus are most favorably aligned, Shapiro showed that the expected time delay, due to the presence of the Sun, of a radar signal traveling from the Earth to Venus and back, would be about 200 microseconds, well within the limitations of 1960s era technology.

The first tests, performed in 1966 and 1967 using the MIT Haystack radar antenna, were successful, matching the predicted amount of time delay. The experiments have been repeated many times since then, with increasing accuracy.

Calculating time delay

In a near-static gravitational field of moderate strength (say, of stars and planets, but not one of a black hole or close binary system of neutron stars) the effect may be considered as a special case of gravitational time dilation. According to special relativity, the speed of light is constant for measurements in a local reference frame. However, this is not true for non-local paths along which a gravitational field is present. The measured elapsed time of a light signal in a gravitational field is longer than it would be without the field, and for moderate strength near-static fields the difference is directly proportional to the classical gravitational potential, precisely as given by standard gravitational time dilation formulas.

Time delay due to light traveling around a single mass

For a signal going around a massive object, the time delay can be calculated as the following:

$\Delta t=-{\frac {2GM}{c^{3}}}\log(1-\mathbf {R} \cdot \mathbf {x} )$

Here $\mathbf {R}$ is the unit vector pointing from the observer to the source, and

$\mathbf {x}$ is the unit vector pointing from the observer to the gravitating mass M.

For the dot in $\mathbf {R} \cdot \mathbf {x}$, see Dot product.

The above formula can be rearranged like this:

$c\Delta t=-{\frac {2GM}{c^{2}}}\log(1-\mathbf {R} \cdot \mathbf {x} )$

$\Delta x=-R_{s}\log(1-\mathbf {R} \cdot \mathbf {x} )$

which is the extra distance the light has to travel, where $R_{s}$ is the Schwarzschild radius.

This is the same as:

$\Delta t=-{\frac {R_{s}}{c}}\log(1-\mathbf {R} \cdot \mathbf {x} )$

Interplanetary probes

Shapiro delay must be considered along with ranging data when trying to accurately determine the distance to interplanetary probes such as the Voyager and Pioneer spacecraft.

Quote by Einstein

"In the second place our result shows that, according to the general theory of relativity, the law of the constancy of the velocity of light in vacuum, which constitutes one of the two fundamental assumptions in the special theory of relativity and to which we have already frequently referred, cannot claim any unlimited validity. A curvature of rays of light can only take place when the velocity of propagation of light varies with position. Now we might think that as a consequence of this, the special theory of relativity and with it the whole theory of relativity would be laid in the dust. But in reality this is not the case. We can only conclude that the special theory of relativity cannot claim an unlimited domain of validity ; its results hold only so long as we are able to disregard the influences of gravitational fields on the phenomena (e.g. of light)." – Albert Einstein (The General Theory of Relativity: Chapter 22 – A Few Inferences from the General Principle of Relativity)

Shapiro delay of neutrinos and gravitational waves

From the near-simultaneous observations of neutrinos and photons from SN 1987A, we know that the Shapiro delay for high-energy neutrinos is the same as that for photons to within 10% (consistent with recent estimates of the neutrino mass which imply that those neutrinos were moving at very close to the speed of light). Since gravitational waves have not been directly detected, we don't have any data on the Shapiro delay for gravitational waves. In general relativity and other metric theories of gravity, the Shapiro delay for gravitational waves is expected to be same as that for light (and neutrinos). However in theories such as Teves and other modified GR theories which reproduce Milgrom's law and avoid the need for dark matter, the Shapiro delay for gravitational waves is much smaller than that for neutrinos or photons.

See also

• Gravitational redshift and Blueshift
• Proper time
• Secular variations of the planetary orbits

Further reading

• van Straten W, Bailes M, Britton M; et al. (12 July 2001). "Boost for General Relativity". Nature. 412 (6843): 158–60. doi:10.1038/35084015. PMID 11449265. {{cite journal}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |author= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Relativity : the Special and General Theory by Albert Einstein at Project Gutenberg
• d'Inverno, Ray (1992). Introducing Einstein's Relativity. Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-859686-3. See Section 15.6 for an excellent advanced undergraduate level introduction to the Shapiro effect.
• Will, Clifford M. (2001). "The Confrontation between General Relativity and Experiment". Living Reviews in Relativity. 4: 4–107. arXiv:gr-qc/0103036. Bibcode:2001LRR.....4....4W. A graduate level survey of the solar system tests, and more.
• John C. Baez, Emory F. Bunn (2005). "The Meaning of Einstein's Equation". American Journal of Physics. 73 (7): 644–652. arXiv:gr-qc/0103044. Bibcode:2005AmJPh..73..644B. doi:10.1119/1.1852541.
• Michael J. Longo (January 18, 1988). "New Precision Tests of the Einstein Equivalence Principle from Sn1987a". Physical Review Letters. 60 (3): 173–175. Bibcode:1988PhRvL..60..173L. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.60.173.
• Lawrence M. Krauss, Scott Tremaine (January 18, 1988). "Test of the Weak Equivalence Principle for Neutrinos and Photons". Physical Review Letters. 60 (3): 176–177. Bibcode:1988PhRvL..60..176K. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.60.176.
• S. Desai, E. Kahya, R.P. Woodard (2008). "Reduced time delay for gravitational waves with dark matter emulators". Physical Review D. 77 (12): 124041. Bibcode:2008PhRvD..77l4041D. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.77.124041.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)