A dual-band, fiber-optic, photon time-of-flight instrument was developed. Its design was optimized for measuring the velocity of visible photons emanating from relatively dim astronomical sources (apparent magnitude ), such as distant galaxies and quasars. We report the first direct photon group velocity measurements for extragalactic objects. The photon group velocity is found to be and is invariant, within experimental error, over the range of redshifts measured (). This measurement provides additional validation of general relativity and is consistent with the Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker and hyperbolic anti-de Sitter metrics but not with the elliptical de Sitter metric.
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