Cosmological redshift and nonlinear electrodynamics propagation of photons from distant sources

Abstract

By-now photons are the unique universal messengers. Cosmological sources like far-away galaxies or quasars are well-known light-emitters. Here we demonstrate that the nonlinear electrodynamics (NLED) description of photon propagation through the weak background intergalactic magnetic fields modifies in a fundamental way the cosmological redshift that a direct computation within a specific cosmological model can abscribe to a distant source. Independently of the class of NLED Lagrangian, the effective redshift turns out to be $1 + \tilde{z} = (1 + z) \Delta$, where $\Delta \equiv (1 + \Phi_e)/(1 + \Phi_o)$, with $\Phi \equiv {8}/{3} ({L_{FF}}/{L_F}) B^2$, being $L_F = {dL}/{dF}$, $L_{FF} = {d^2L}/{dF^2}$, the field $F\equiv F_{\alpha \beta} F^{\alpha \beta}$, and $B$ the magnetic field strength. Thus the effective redshift is always much higher then the standard redshift, but recovers such limit when the NLED correction $\Delta(\Phi_e, \Phi_o) \longrightarrow 1$. This result may provide a physical foundation for the current observation-inspired interpretation that the universe undergoes an accelerate expansion. However, under the situation analyzed here, for any NLED the actual (spatial) position of the light-emitting far-away source remains untouched.