Perihelion precession in spherically symmetric Kaluza-Klein theories

TL;DR

This paper analyzes perihelion precession and light bending in Kaluza-Klein models, showing that the electric redshift model conflicts with observations in the Jordan frame but can be consistent in the Einstein frame, though it fails to explain quasar redshifts.

Contribution

It compares perihelion precession and redshift predictions in Jordan and Einstein frames within Kaluza-Klein theories, highlighting the observational inconsistencies of the electric redshift model.

Findings

The electric redshift model does not match observations in the Jordan frame.

Perihelion precession can be consistent with observations only in the Einstein frame.

The redshift in the Einstein frame is too low to explain quasar redshifts.

Abstract

We consider the perihelion precession and bending of light in a class of Kaluza-Klein models and show that the "electric redshift" model, proposed in Zhang (2006) to explain the redshift of Quasars, does not agree with observations. As Zhang's model only considers the Jordan frame, we also compute the perihelion precession as seen in the Einstein frame and show that, to lowest order, the perihelion precession can only be consistent with observation in the Einstein frame. However, when we consider the corresponding "electric redshift" in the Einstein frame, we find that the redshift is significantly lower than for the Jordan frame and is therefore very unlikely to explain the redshift of quasars.