-4

I'm trying to understand whether the standard interpretation of gravitational time dilation- that time itself slows in lower gravitational potentials—is the only valid one, or whether there’s room for an alternative view.

Atomic clocks are governed by quantum transitions tied to fundamental constants, and their tick rates are considered extremely stable. If they are not significantly altered by small changes in gravitational potential, could the difference we observe between two clocks be due not to the clocks slowing down, but to a change in how spacetime flows around them?

That is:
Standard view (GR): Time slows in stronger gravity, and clocks reflect this.
Alternate view: Time flows faster in compacted spacetime, but clocks remain stable—so they appear slower.

This results in the same measured time difference, but the causality is reversed: clocks aren't changing, but spacetime is.

Is there a physical or experimental reason this interpretation is ruled out? Or is it simply a matter of coordinate choice and convention within GR?

Navel-gazer
  • 285

1 Answers1

2

The statements that clocks "tick more slowly" or that "time flows faster" are both actually somewhat meaningless. If you'll look at your wristwatch, it will always appear to tick at the same rate, no matter where you are.

Time dilation between clocks is only really meaningful when you compare two clocks after they have traveled along two different paths from point $A$ to point $B$. Geometrically, this simply reflects the fact that the two paths have different "lengths" in space time (the analogue of length, in 4-dimensinal spacetime, is proper time). The curvature caused by gravity can stretch or squeeze those paths so that one becomes "shorter" with respect to the other. But as you travel along the path, you do not experience any apparent change in the "flow of time".

J. Delaney
  • 2,680
  • 1
  • 6
  • 15