# Has anyone considered a gradual change in Gravitational Potential across the universe as a cause for cosmic red shift?

Since the formation of fundamental particles at the beginning of the universe (roughly the time of the CMB emission, and after the inflationary epoch of Big Bang theory), the gravity wave front of all particles in the universe (which propagates at c) has been continuing to spread. Therefore, for the exact same reason our "observable" universe is limited by the travel distance of photons since the CMB, our local gravitational potential shifts over time for the same reason.

Calculations I've done for this result in a linear trend of this GP accumulation which matches all measurements of red shift to this point. Although I'm not taking about metric expansion in the Hubble Flow sense, distances would still be expanding between all points relatively (time dilation).

I understand that Hubble and Einstein did not believe in a cosmic origin, so doppler effect was the best hypothesis at the time. However, since a finite time universe has become the prevalent theory since their deaths, has this gravitational solution been considered?

Therefore, for the exact same reason our "observable" universe is limited by the travel distance of photons since the CMB, our local gravitational potential shifts over time for the same reason.

It's true that the gravitational field at a spacetime point is due to the matter on the past light cone of that point, but that's automatically taken into account when you use the GR field equation to relate the curvature to the matter distribution. It isn't an extra effect that could be overlooked; it's just ordinary cosmology.

There is no well defined gravitational potential in GR, except in static spacetimes, but the FLRW universe isn't static. FLRW spacetimes (without local inhomogeneity) don't have anything deserving of the name gravitational time dilation.

Without knowing what calculations you did, it's hard to say more, but almost certainly either you made a mistake in the calculations or you've just written standard cosmology in nonstandard coordinates.

Allure's answer refers to something different, the gravitational redshift of galaxy clusters due to their self-gravitation. Aside from being small, this effect is independent of cosmological distance, so it can't explain the redshift-distance relationship.

• Thank you @benrg for taking the time to consider my question. However, I don't believe you understand the scope of my question. I am speaking specifically about the gravity emitted by all particles in the universe since "popping" into existence 14 B years ago. As LIGOS confirmed the propagation rate of gravity to 'c', therefore we are just now receiving the gravity waves from the edge of the observable universe. I am limited in response space. This details all my considerations: docs.google.com/document/d/… Apr 13, 2021 at 5:22

It's been tried, and it doesn't work. The effect is too small.

See this paper. The gravitational redshift is only a few $$km/s$$, easily drowned out by the effect of Hubble flow.