Relational Light — Photons, Frequencies, and the Ontology of Electromagnetism: 3 Redshift and Blueshift as Horizon Dynamics

In classical physics, redshift and blueshift are described as changes in the wavelength or frequency of light due to relative motion (Doppler effect) or gravitational influence. These descriptions rely on representational assumptions: light as a wave traveling through space, spacetime as a background, and frequency as an intrinsic oscillation.

From a relational perspective, these assumptions are unnecessary and misleading. Light is not a wave propagating through space; photons are sequences of null cuts, and frequency is not an intrinsic oscillation but a pattern of actualisation across relational horizons. Redshift and blueshift are therefore manifestations of horizon dynamics, not intrinsic changes in photons.

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1. Horizons of Potentiality

Every system has a horizon of potentiality, defining the range and coherence of patterns it can actualise and construe. Observed phenomena emerge from the interaction of these horizons.

• The emitter’s horizon constrains the patterning of successive cuts of a photon.

• The observer’s horizon construes these patterns according to its own relational constraints.

• Alignment or misalignment of these horizons produces apparent changes in rhythm — what classical physics calls frequency shifts.

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2. Doppler Shift as Horizon Misalignment

Relative motion between emitter and observer modifies the relational alignment of their horizons:

• If the observer’s horizon “compresses” the sequence of cuts, the pattern appears to occur more rapidly → blueshift.

• If the horizon “stretches” the sequence, the pattern appears slower → redshift.

There is no intrinsic frequency change in the photon. The shift is a perspectival ordering effect arising from the geometry of relational horizons.

This explanation generalises naturally:

• Classical Doppler formulas emerge from constraints on relative horizon alignment.

• Relativistic corrections appear as natural consequences of limits imposed by potentiality horizons, not as artifacts of spacetime transformation.

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3. Gravitational Shift as Horizon Modulation

Gravitational redshift, classically interpreted as time dilation along a curved geodesic, is similarly recast:

• A massive system modulates the local horizon of potentiality.

• Photon cuts that would appear regular in one horizon now appear stretched or compressed in another.

• The observer perceives a redshift (or blueshift) according to the relational configuration of horizons.

The “curvature of spacetime” is not a background; it is an expression of relational constraints, guiding the emergent ordering of photon patterning.

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4. Cosmological Redshift in Relational Terms

On cosmic scales, redshift is typically attributed to the expansion of space. Relationally:

• The effective horizon of distant systems evolves over cosmological time.

• Successive null cuts from distant emitters are construed across increasingly misaligned horizons.

• Observed redshift reflects dynamic horizon divergence, not expansion of an external medium.

This provides a fully relational account of cosmological redshift consistent with geodesic relationalism: the patterning of light across successive actualisations reflects the evolution of relational constraints between distant systems.

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5. Horizon Dynamics and Observables

Horizon dynamics explain all observable frequency shifts:

1. Doppler shifts: relative motion modifies horizon alignment.

2. Gravitational shifts: mass-induced modulation of local potentiality fields.

3. Cosmological shifts: evolving horizon separation across large-scale structures.

In every case, what changes is the ordering of null cuts as construed by a system, not the photon itself. Frequency shifts are relational phenomena, fully integrated with the broader geodesic and dynamics framework.

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6. Integration with Geodesics and Dynamics

Redshift and blueshift provide the first bridge between photons and massive-body dynamics:

• Geodesics describe the emergent trajectories of massive bodies.

• Horizon dynamics describe the emergent patterns of photons.

• Observed frequency shifts are relationally constrained interactions between these patterns, allowing photons to map out geodesic structure without invoking force or field.

This relational integration opens the way to the final post of the series, where electromagnetic phenomena as a whole are recast as coherence and modulation of relational potentiality, freeing them entirely from classical field metaphysics.