Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-symmetry-and-relativity-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2019/2/c/ii/solution

Decreasing increases the blueshift required for excitation. Both characteristic speeds move toward :
If is near one, modest approach speeds can excite the line. If , only strongly relativistic motion reaches the line centre. At a fixed qualifying speed, decreasing moves the resonance toward earlier approach, since a larger is required. It can also move the event outside the illumination window set by .
At fixed , increasing moves the resonance from the far approaching tail, through closest approach at , and eventually to the receding side. The received pulse frequency cannot be estimated simply by applying the same blueshift twice: the inward and outward Doppler factors are different, and decay may occur well after excitation. The critical-speed rows of part i make these changes explicit.

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