Redshifts and the hypothesis of variable particle masses

Abstract

There are ideas in literature which seek to understand particle masses at a more fundamental level [1-3]. Mach's principle has been one of the motivators of such efforts. This talk will highlight a new way of looking at the conventional cosmological redshifts. It has its origin in the Hoyle-Narlikar theory of conformal gravity in which particle masses arise from other particles in a Machian fashion [4]. It will be argued that instead of an expanding universe, one may talk of a static Minkowski universe in which masses of elementary particles vary with epoch. All the features of the standard cosmology can be understood this way. Additionally it will be shown that delayed matter creation can lead to the so-called anomalous redshifts found by Arp and others [13,14]. The underlying theory for this phenomenon was proposed as the 'Variable Mass Hypothesis' by the author [8]. This theory will be described and its further development briefly discussed.