An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
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The effect of → gravitational potentials on the → anisotropy of the → cosmic microwave background radiation, in which photons from the → CMB are gravitationally → redshifted, causing the CMB spectrum to appear uneven. This effect is the predominant source of fluctuations in the CMB for angular scales above about 10 degrees. It involves two parts: the effect of the potential at the → surface of last scattering, which is the ordinary Sachs-Wolfe effect. And the integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effec, which is caused by the time variation of gravitational potentials as the photons travel through them. A photon traveling through a decaying → potential well (wall) gains (loses) energy. Without → dark energy the photon is → blueshifted and then → redshifted, so that both effects compensate each other. On the other hand, in an → accelerating Universe driven by dark energy the photon gets more blueshifted. See also → Rees-Sciama effect.

Rainer Kurt Sachs (1932- ) & Arthur Michael Wolfe (1939- ), 1967, ApJ 147, 73; → effect.