https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-021-09415-y
Regular Article - Theoretical Physics
Test of gravitational red-shift based on tri-frequency combination of microwave frequency links
1
Department of Geophysics, School of Geodesy and Geomatics/Key Laboratory of Geospace Environment and Geodesy of Ministry of Education, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
2
State Key Laboratory of Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
3
Hubei University of Science and Technology, Xianning, China
Received:
8
February
2021
Accepted:
4
July
2021
Published online:
20
July
2021
Over the decades, testing gravitational red-shift (GRS) based on microwave links has made great process, including the GPA experiment, the planned Atomic Clock Ensemble in Space mission, and the China Space Station (CSS). Until now, the formulations of microwave links are almost all based on the time comparison. However, there are advantages of using frequency comparison instead of time comparison to test GRS. Here we develop a tri-frequency combination method based on the measurements of the frequency shifts of three independent microwave links between a space station and a ground station. Aiming at the frequency links’ accuracy of 
, we should consider various effects, including the Doppler effect, second-order Doppler effect, atmospheric frequency shift, tidal effects, refraction caused by the atmosphere, and Shapiro effect, with accuracy levels of tens of centimeters. The CSS will complete construction in 2022, and the formulation proposed in this study will enable us to test GRS at an accuracy level of at least 
, which is one order higher than the present accuracy level of 
.
© The Author(s) 2021
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Funded by SCOAP3
