Method for Experimental Verification of the Effect of Gravitational Time Dilation by Using an Active Hydrogen Maser.

The well-known experiments performed by Pound and Rebka already in the 1960s confirmed the effect of gravitational time dilation, which had been predicted earlier within the framework of the general relativity theory. However, since photon exchange occurred in the course of these experiments on comparing the frequencies of nuclear resonance fluorescence at various altitudes, the reasons underlying the origin of this effect are explained in the literature by two different and, in fact, alternative presumed physical phenomena. According to the first explanation, clocks locate higher run faster, which is due to an increase in the gravitational potential with increasing distance from the Earth, whereas ascending and descending photons do not change their frequency (by the same clock, e.g., that of the so-called outside observer). According to the second explanation, the clock rate is the same at different altitudes, but the ascending photons undergo a redshift since they lose their energy, while the descending photons undergo a blueshift since they acquire energy. Other combined interpretations of the gravitational time dilation, which presume that the both phenomena exist simultaneously, are proposed in the literature. We propose an experiment with two clocks being active hydrogen masers, one of which is located at the bottom of a high-rise building, and the other, on the top of the building. In this case, time is measured by the first and second clocks during a sufficiently long time interval. After that, the masers are placed at one point, and their indications are compared. In this case, the photon exchange is not required for comparison of the clock readings, and, therefore, the method proposed allows one to reveal the actual reason of the effect under consideration. Numerical estimations are made, which allow for the accompanying effects influencing the measurement accuracy. Critical analysis of the earlier experiments shows that they are either equivocal, or are not absolutely impeccable from the methodology viewpoint. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]