Proposal of Experimental Test of General Relativity Theory

TL;DR

This paper proposes an experimental test to challenge the Equivalence Principle by detecting proper mass variations of particles in a gravitational field, suggesting a possible violation of General Relativity.

Contribution

It introduces a novel experimental approach using a modified Pound-Rebka-Snider experiment in free fall to test for proper mass variations and potential violations of the Equivalence Principle.

Findings

Proper mass of particles depends on gravitational potential energy.

Freely falling frames may not be equivalent inertial frames.

A free-fall Pound-Rebka-Snider experiment could detect deviations from General Relativity.

Abstract

On the basis of the relativistic mass-energy concept we found that a proper mass of a test particle in a gravitational field depends on a potential energy, hence, a freely falling particle has a varying proper mass. Consequently, a multitude of freely falling reference frames cannot be regarded as a multitude of equivalent inertial reference frames. There is a class of experiments, in which an inner observer can distinguish between the state of free fall in a gravitational field and the state of free space by detecting the effect of a proper mass variation. If so, a demonstration of a violation of the Equivalence Principle is possible. It is shown that a variant of the classical Pound-Rebka-Snider experiment on a photon frequency shift in a gravitational field, if conducted in a freely falling laboratory, would be such a test. Abbreviation: SRT- the Special Relativity Theory, GRT- the General Relativity Theory, EP - the Equivalence Principle, PRS - the Pound-Rebka-Snider (experiment)