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Delayoflightpassingamass:Shapirodelay|Physicspages

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Delay of light passing a mass: Shapiro delay

Reference:Moore,ThomasA.,AGeneralRelativityWorkbook,UniversityScience
Books(2013)Chapter13ProblemP13.7.
Inadditiontobeingdeflectedwhenitpassesamass,photonsalsoexperiencea
delay(relativetothetraveltimeintheabsenceofthedeflectingmass)knownasthe
Shapirodelay,afterIrwinShapirowhofirstobservedtheeffectinthe1960s.
Crudelyspeaking,thedelayisduetothecurvatureofspacetimeresultinginthe
photonshavingtotravelalongerpath,althoughofcoursetheactualreasonisabit
moresubtle,beingrelatedtotherevisednotionsofspaceandtimeinthe
Schwarzschildmetric.
Ourstartingpointforcalculatingthedelayinthetraveltimeisthephotonradial
equationofmotion:

Theclosestapproachofthephotontothemassoccurswhen isaminimumat
,andthuswhen

.Thus

Wecanexpresstheoriginaldifferentialequationintermsof byeliminating .
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Delayoflightpassingamass:Shapirodelay|Physicspages

Tryingtointegratethisisimpossibleasitlooks(exceptnumerically),soweneedto
simplifyitbymakingafewapproximations.Asusual,wecanassumethat
(thatis,thephotonnevergetsclosetotheSchwarzschildradius
).Asafirstattempt,wemightjustignoretheseterms(thatis,take
).Ifwedothat,weget

where isthetimeatwhichthephotonisattheclosestapproach .Thus

is

thetimetotraveltoorfromthepointofclosestapproachtosomepoint inflat
space(sincewevetaken

),sothisobviouslycantincludethedelayfactor.

Weneedabetterapproximation,andonethatishopefullystillintegrable.
Wellintroducethevariable

Sincewereassuming

andrewritetheequationabove:

and

aswell,sowecanexpand

theoperandofthesquarerootinaTaylorseriesandkeeponlythefirstorderterm.
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Wedefine

Delayoflightpassingamass:Shapirodelay|Physicspages

tosimplifythenotation.

Therefore

Thuswerenowfacedwith

(Note:theminussigninthelastsquarerootiscorrecttheplussigngivenbyMoore
inequation13.27iswrong.Seethelistoferratainthebook.)
Needlesstosay,thisintegralstillcantbedone,butwecanapproximateyetagain
bynotingthat

Thustofirstorder,wenowhave
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Delayoflightpassingamass:Shapirodelay|Physicspages

Theseintegralscanbedone(usingsoftwareortables),andweget(substitutingback
for

):

Thefirstterminthisansweristheflatspaceterm,sothelattertwotermsrepresent
thedelay.Boththesetermsarenonnegative(since
logarithmis

theargumentofthe

soitisnonnegative).

Asanexample,wecanworkoutthedelayforaphotontravellingfromVenusto
EarthwhenVenusisontheoppositesideofthesunfromEarth.Theradiusof
Venussorbitis0.723AU(astronomicalunits)andtheradiusoftheEarthsorbitis1
AU.Ifthephotonjustgrazesthesurfaceofthesun, isthesunsradiuswhichis
.

forthesunis1.477km.

ThedelaysintravellingfromVenustotheEartharethen(dividebythespeedof
lighttoconvertfromkmtosec):

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This entry was posted in Physics, Relativity and tagged Shapiro delay on Thu, 8 August 2013
[http://www.physicspages.com/2013/08/08/delay-of-light-passing-a-mass-shapiro-delay/] .

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