Intrinsic Properties of Light and Corpuscles from Distant Sources.

Spectra of distant nebulae, compared with those of neighboring nebulae, are shifted toward the red by amounts which increase with the distance which the light has traveled. This fact indicates that we are confronted with a phenomenon which involves history on a large scale, history either of the universe as a whole, or history of some of its individual parts. Scientifically speaking, history means the change in time of dimensionless ratios of significant physical quantities. Thus, on the relativistic interpretation of the redshift of light from nebulae the dimensionless ratio Did between two lengths changes (increases) in time. Appropriate choices for these two lengths are Bohr's characteristic length d = h2/47r2me2 as a supposedly fixed terrestrial measuring stick, and D = V"3 where V is the volume which on the average contains one extragalactic nebula. However, many other interpretations of the redshift are possible. The assumption that history must be operative clearly suggests the necessity of an investigation of all dimensionless ratios between significant physical quantities. Only after this investigation has been completed will a final understanding of the redshift and other cosmic phenomena be possible. The following discussion will be concerned with the behavior of the most trivial dimensionless ratios only. A more general program may be outlined, but so far essential data for its realization are lacking. A. Nebular Light and Terrestrial Light.-We shall designate one and the same property for nebular light and terrestrial light with PN and PTO respectively. The first step in our program consists in procuring data which will enable us to decide whether or not for a given property p the dimensionless ratio PN/PT is equal to unity or not. For instance, we may put PN = CN and PT = cT where cN and cT are the velocities of nebular light and terrestrial light, respectively, as measured simultaneously at the time of their arrival. Since no direct measurements are available we are forced to accept the values of cN obtained from the astronomical aberration as a legitimate substitute. Also, CT in the actual case refers to light from nearby stars instead of terrestrial light directly. The aberration of light from nebulae relative to the aberration of light from stars was measured by Stromberg and van Biesbroeck. Stromberg1 has determined the positions of nebulae in the Ursa Major I cluster relative to the surrounding star field in the course of a year. The …