On the Influence of Gravity on the Deviation of the Direction of Light Propagation and Gravitational Time Slowdown

Abstract

It has been established that the change in the direction of light propagation near massive astronomical bodies, such as the Sun, occurs due to the refraction of light in the cosmic environment. The role of the gravitational field is exclusively to increase the density of the cosmic environment as it approaches a massive body. The gravitational field has no direct effect on the light beam or photons. The incompatibility of the energy of gravitational processes with the idea of the interaction of space-time with objects of physical reality, including massive bodies and photons, has been established. Space-time is not an object of physical reality. It has been established that due to the decrease in the optical density of the cosmic environment as it moves away from a massive body, a gravitational red shift occurs. The idea of gravitational time dilation is devoid of physical (common) sense. It is not time that slows down. It is the physical processes that occur with material objects that slow down.

Received: 2 July 2025 | Revised: 27 August 2025 | Accepted: 10 October 2025

Conflicts of Interest

The author declares that he has no conflicts of interest to this work.

Data Availability Statement

Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analyzed in this study.

Author Contribution Statement

Igor P. Popov: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Resources, Data curation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing, Visualization, Supervision, Project administration.