The Parametric Light-Matter Interactions in Astrophysics

Abstract

After the computation of the frequency shifts observed in the Solar System produced by the Doppler and gravitational effects, there remain “anomalous” extra shifts, such as the redshift at the limb of the Sun and the blueshift of the radio frequencies of Pioneers 10 and 11. Other anomalous, Doppler‐like redshifts are observed in the Universe.The parametric (coherent) light‐matter interactions (refraction, photon echoes, phase conjugation mirrors, photon splitting, …) are strong effects which transfer energy and (or) momenta without quantification if the matter returns to its initial state. While these effects are commonly studied in the lab, they are ignored in astrophysics (except refraction) because they require uncommon conditions.Atomic hydrogen in its states 2S or 2P (called H*) is able to “catalyse” transfers of energy from beams of ordinary light which have a high Planck temperature (given by Planck’s blackbody law) to colder beams, producing frequency shifts. The effect, made by several simultaneous “Coherent Raman Effects on Incoherent Light” (CREIL), does not blur the images and the spectra, and the relative frequency shifts are constant if the dispersions of the spectroscopic parameters are neglected.H* may be found where hydrogen is heated enough to become atomic (T>10 000 K), then excited either by a much higher temperature (100 000 K), provided that a sufficient density limits the ionisation, or by Lyman alpha pumping.These conditions are fulfilled around accreting neutron stars, leading to a very complicated spectrum which has the characteristics of a quasar spectrum. The complexity of the spectrum is, in particular, a consequence of an instability due to the coupling of the Lyman alpha absorption with the frequency shift it provides through the CREIL in the produced H*. Thus, the periodicity of redshifts z=0.062 observed by several authors results from the spectroscopy of hydrogen.The proximity of a hot source (quasar) produces H*, so that the objects close to a quasar appear anomalously redshifted. The transfers of energy to and among the low frequencies produce a thermal, isotropic radiation whose temperature may reach several hundreds of kelvins close to bright, much redshifted objects.The CREIL in the photosphere of the Sun explains the extra redshifts at the limb. The CREIL explains simply the frequency shifts at the surface of the Sun, the extra blueshift of the radio‐signals of the Pioneer probes, and why the anisotropy of the CMB seems bound to the ecliptic.The Pioneer 10 and 11 probes have reached a region of the space where the protons and electrons of the solar wind are cold enough to combine, producing some H* which allows a transfer of energy from the solar light to the radio‐waves which are blueshifted. The anisotropy of the repartition of this hydrogen is transferred to the microwave background while it is blueshifted, that is amplified.Conclusion: The largest part of the redshifts results from the column density of excited atomic hydrogen H*.