Mössbauer experiments in a rotating system: Recent errors and novel interpretation

Abstract

We consider the energy shift between emission and absorption lines in the Mossbauer experiments in a rotating system in the view of a recently reported extra component of such a shift, in addition to the usual relativistic time dilation effect, expressed by the inequality k > 0.5 in the expression for the relative energy shift ΔE/E = −ku2/c2 (u is the orbital velocity, and c the light velocity in vacuum). We consider the recent attempts of re-interpretation of the Mossbauer rotor experiments, showing their incorrectness, and analyze the proposed explanations of the physical origin of this extra energy shift. This way we stress that the energy of nuclei located in crystal cells should be determined via relativistic quantum mechanics, involving the geometry of a rotating disc. We show that the standard theory yields k = 1/2; applying the YARK gravitational theory, we obtain k = 2/3 in a perfect agreement with experimental data.