Time, clocks, parametric invariance and the Pioneer Anomaly

TL;DR

This paper proposes a parametric theory where discrepancies between atomic and gravitational clocks, due to quantum vacuum interactions, could explain the Pioneer Anomaly, suggesting a potential link between quantum physics and gravitational phenomena.

Contribution

It introduces a model where clock discrepancies from quantum vacuum effects may account for the Pioneer Anomaly, offering a novel explanation within current physics frameworks.

Findings

Clock acceleration differences lead to observable trajectory lag.

The model aligns with the Pioneer Anomaly observations.

Suggests a new physics origin for the anomaly.

Abstract

In the context of a parametric theory (with the time being a dynamical variable) we consider the coupling between the quantum vacuum and the background gravitation that pervades the universe (unavoidable because of the universality of gravity). In our model the fourth Heisenberg relation introduces a possible source of discrepancy between the marches of atomic and gravitational clocks, which accelerate with respect to one another. This produces in its turn another discrepancy between the observations, performed with atomic time, and the theoretical analysis, which uses parametric astronomical time. Curiously, this approach turns out to be compatible with current physics; lacking a unified theory of quantum physics and gravitation, it cannot be discarded {\it a priori}. It happens that this phenomenon has the same footprint as the Pioneer Anomaly, what suggests a solution to this riddle. This is because the velocity of the Pioneer spaceship with respect to atomic time turns out to be slightly smaller that with astronomical time, so that that the apparent trajectory lags behind the real one. In 1998, after many unsuccessful efforts to account for this phenomenon, the discoverers suggested "the possibility that the origin of the anomalous signal is new physics".