The Pioneer riddle, the quantum vacuum and the acceleration of light

Abstract

It is shown that the same phenomenological Newtonian model recently proposed by the author to explain the cosmological evolution of the fine structure constant suggests furthermore an explanation of the unmodelled acceleration $a_P\simeq 8.5\times 10^{-10}m/s^2$ of the Pioneer 10/11 spaceships reported by Anderson {\em et al} in 1998. In the view presented here, it is argued that the permittivity and permeability of empty space are decreasing adiabatically, and the light is accelerating therefore, as a consequence of the progressive attenuation of the quantum vacuum due to the combined effect of its gravitational interaction with all the expanding universe and the fourth Heisenberg relation. It is suggested that the spaceships do not have any extra acceleration (but follow the unchanged Newton laws), the observed effect being due to an adiabatic acceleration of the light equal to $a_P$, which has the same observational radio signature as the anomalous acceleration of the Pioneers.