Doppler Effect for Non-uniformly Moving Source, Observer, and Mirror

by Open Science Repository Physics
(August 2018)

Abstract

Doppler effect has been applied to study the accelerating universe and to daily life. We believe that to describe non-uniform moving system, physics laws should include terms of acceleration/deceleration for accuracy and completeness. In this article, we study systematically the effects of non-uniform motion of either source, or observer, or mirror on Doppler effect, called it the Extended Doppler effect. We show that, indeed, the non-uniform motion not only shifts wavelength/frequency but also changes wavelength/frequency and Extended Doppler shift continuously. There is no transformation between non-uniform moving reference frames. We derived Extended Doppler effect for non-uniform moving source, observer, and mirror based on (1) the speed of light wave is the same for all non-uniform moving frames; (2) geometric optical principles hold. We show that, for slow non-uniform motion, the shifts of wavelength/frequency depend on the relative velocity and relative acceleration/deceleration.

Keywords: Doppler effect, Doppler frequency, Doppler shift, non-uniform motion, extended Doppler effect, Extended Doppler frequency.

Full text

Doppler Effect for Non-uniformly Moving Source, Observer, and Mirror