| The Tired Light theory was introduced by F. Zwicki in 1929 to explain the red shift in light from distant objects in space. This was an alternative to the Big Bang theory which was in great difficulty. There was no way within the known laws of physics that the universe could have achieved its present size. It was necessary to invent an "Expansion Period" within which time the laws of physics did not apply. |
| But the Tired Light Theory quickly gathered up its own set of problems. There was no way within the known laws of physics that a photon's energy could be degraded without also changing its momentum. This would cause a blur of distant starlight, which is not observed. Studies of Supernova decay indicated that they exhibited time dilation consistent with the Big-Bang account of creation. Then finally, with the discovery of the Cosmic Background Radiation (CBR) at one certain temperature, Tired Light seemed doomed. If light lost its energy at a constant rate, when it finally reached the temperature of the CBR it should still exhibit a range of frequencies (temperatures) that reflects the spectrum of the stars. But instead, the CBR exists at the constant frequency of a Black Body Radiator. |
| So now we are left with two failed theories. The Big Bang was propped up by inventing the Expansion Period. We could prop up Tired Light by introducing a non-linear natural energy loss for photons. We can call it The Sleepy Photon Hypothesis. This non linearity would cause frequencies to converge to black-body radiation at the wave length of the CBR. When the wave length reached that of the CBR it would have gradually stabilized to remain at that frequency. |
| It might be fun to work up the equations that would reduce photon frequency to that of the CBR at some rate that we can get from observed red shifts over time. Right away we know that we can easily test this hypothesis. If it is real, the frequency shifts of light will not be the same at high and low frequencies. For the Sleepy Photon Hypothesis to work, lower frequencies must lose energy faster than higher frequencies. This would also account for the apparent speeding up of the expansion of the universe. |
But unlike the Expansion Period of the Big Bang, the Sleepy Photon Hypothesis
can easily be tested. Just look at the starlight spectrum of red-shifted
galaxies. Notice that the lower frequencies are red shifted more than the
higher frequencies. Now we are really in a pickle. How in the world can we explain
the time dilation of Super Nova?
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