Thursday, September 14, 2017

Whither quantum gravity?

Ah, the secular Holy Grail of science - quantum gravity.  This, along with joining gravity with the other four forces into a Theory of Everything, has been sought by physicists for decades.  In teaching myself about relativity and quantum mechanics, I kept running across speculations into this specialty field over and over.  It asks the most fundamental questions possible - what is mass, what is matter, what are space and time, what is gravity, how does any of this happen, and so forth.  Deep, deep questions without answers.

I now say, not quite so humbly, that in my learning and thought experiments that I seem to have accidentally come up with a workable theory of quantum gravity.  It is a summary of what I've been thinking and writing about here on this blog, which almost nobody ever reads.  (I have yet to receive a single comment here.)  The trick lies in thinking differently and attempting to see clearly.  Everything is part of everything else.  All things are related.  You can't think about gravity without accounting for everything else.

Gravity is not a force.  This is nothing new.  Einstein posited it in his famous papers.  Gravity is not a force - it is an effect.  People researching quantum gravity seem to keep forgetting this.  They keep looking for gravitons.  For there to be gravitons, there would have to be a force of gravity.  There is no such force.  So, stop thinking about gravitons, and as gravity as a an attractive force.  It simply isn't.

Gravity is an effect of "curved space-time".  What is this space-time, and how does it curve?  It is simply another field.  It does not curve or bend like a sheet of cellophane, but it does have energy gradients.  The key here is that is does not have a base energy of zero.  It has a perfectly enormous base energy.  This is because every other field, every other force, every bit of energy, mass, and matter is subtracted from the space-time energy field (STEF).  What is the base value of STEF?  I have no idea - I'm not a real physicist, and I haven't done calculus since I was a freshman in college several decades ago.  (I keep meaning to.  I've got a calculus book in sight right now.)

The key here is that STEF is quantized.  All other fields draw energy from it, but only in discreet (very tiny) chunks.  This energy draw is then spread across the energy field in an inverse-square fashion, because otherwise space-time would be full of discontinuities, which clearly doesn't happen.  This happens instantly, and has an infinite range.  STEF is not subject to speed of light restrictions.  (Neither is any other quantum field.  I have no idea why scientists simply don't like to talk about it, or even admit it openly.)  Let me say that again - STEF , like all quantum fields, is infinitely large and infinitely fast.  Waves in energy fields, on the other hand, are restricted to light speed transmission.

So, we have a quantized field, from which all other energy is drawn, with an inverse-square energy gradient.  If you think of the energy levels and gradient as a parabolic slope, we're on the right track.  What is the point of STEF?  What does it control?  Why does it exist?  All fields have a purpose.  STEF's purpose is to control velocity.  And, incidentally, perceived space and time.

Velocity is a spherical standing wave in STEF.  The lowest energy part of the sphere lies directly in the line of velocity, and the di in energy corresponds directly to the velocity.  The highest energy (higher than ambient) lies directly opposite the direction of motion.  This is why particles travel in a straight line, all other things being equal.  It's easier to think about in two dimensions, as a sine-like wave, lower in front, higher behind.

The height of the wave corresponds to the energy increase or decrease in emitted particles.  They gain energy from initially going downhill, and lose energy with an initial uphill climb.  Remember, this effect is actually spherical, and the energy loss or gain corresponds exactly to the predictions of existing physics.  Note that there is no loss when a particle is emitted at ninety degrees to the direction of motion.

The slope of the wave (related to the wave length) corresponds to the dictates of relativistic motion.  The cosine of the slope is the speed (relative to c), and the sine of the slope is the perceived space and time (as a fraction of a theoretical, non-moving reference).  I've shown the math in other posts, but it is fairly trivial if even I can do it.

Where does gravity come in?  Well, gravity is the existing slope of STEF, upon which our particle is creating a standing wave.  You add (superimpose, for the afficionado) the two to get a final motion.  Any slope in STEF will result in a particle's standing wave curving 'downslope' (unless it was already headed in that exact direction, of course) and gaining energy.  A particle moving 'upslope' will also curve (unless it is moving exactly upslope), and lose energy in the process.  Remember, all energy is quantized, so it can only be gained or lost in discrete, very tiny bits.

We call this effect "gravity".   No force carrying particle needed, because it's not a force.

Please note that the theory also works with a decreasing size of the standing wave.  This decrease in wave length increases the frequency, which is the same as increasing the energy of the standing wave.  This property helps to explain perceived space and time differences, as well as 'relativistic mass'.  Space (and thus, time) ahead of the particle (geometric center point of the standing wave) contracts, and energy increases.  Note again, that at ninety degrees to the path of motion, the standing wave is at zero.  There are no relativistic effects at that precise angle.  And the energy increases dramatically directly behind the particle, causing photons emitted in that direction to lose large amounts of energy.

The actual energy lost or gained by an emitted photon is equal to the height of the velocity curve, divided by the wavelength of that curve.  In other words, amplitude times frequency - the definition of the energy of a wave.  (I just realized that part while writing this.)

Everything checks.  Everything explained.  No apparent holes or contradictions.  Simple and elegant.  Quantum gravity, QED.  Tell your friends.

2 comments:

  1. well, I will. I've just wondered by...interesting site. I'll keep stopping by.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A very hearty welcome to my first commenter! I'm happy to entertain and, just possibly, enlighten.

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