GRAVITATION
AN ALTERNATIVE GRAVITON - FREE HERESY
The current theory of gravitation is accepted as part of the super-symmetric theory and the standard model. The force of gravity is extremely weak, 10 to the power of 37 times weaker than the electromagnetic force and approximately 10 to the power of 40 weaker than the strong nuclear force. Gravity is a very different force in other ways. It is only attractive, unlike the electromagnetic, which repels and attracts equally. The number of positive and negative charges in the universe is assumed to be equal, so this force is only effective at small distances, where small inequalities can occur. Gravity affects everything, including mass and energy.
The photon is the mediating particle of the electromagnetic force, acting between charged particles. The theory of this interaction is well understood, quantum electrodynamics being the most successfully tested in physics. The current accuracy amounts to a few centimetres compared to the distance across the USA. In the case of the strong force, acting between nuclear particles, the mediating particle is the gluon. This is similar to the photon in its properties, such as velocity, spin and zero mass, but it only acts between quarks, the particles that make up the nuclei of atoms. The theory of this interaction is quantum chromodynamics and describes the ‘colour’ forces between quarks and gluons.
When matter falls under gravity, or follows the curvature of space, so do the photons that bind it together. Light and the other forms of radiation energy, or photons, have been observed falling around massive objects , exactly as predicted by Albert Einstein. Even the ghostly and ubiquitous neutrinos, which pass through our planet and our bodies continuously, are assumed to fall. We do not notice light falling because it travels so fast. By the time a horizontal light beam has fallen 9 m in a second on Earth, it will have travelled 300,000 km. However, most of the photons around us are not the visible variety but the unseen and undetectable virtual photons that travel between the atomic particles of matter. These can act with infinite range but usually do so over short distances with very short lives in the vacuum that makes up most of the volume of matter. This vacuum itself is now known to be seething with other virtual particles of all varieties; the greater the mass of these particles, the shorter their lives and therefore the shorter the range. It must be assumed that these particles too all fall with the curvature of space, even though they travel back and forth over extremely short distances. Gravity does not ignore the small, though at the extremely small Plank length it is thought that space curvature may become so extreme that a foam like geometry is formed.
Furthermore, the mass of a body is now understood to be largely a function of the energy of gluon/quark interaction. The rest mass of a proton is 938 MeV and the gluon energy is thought to comprise around half of this mass. The electron, creating the volume and links between atoms and molecules is only 1/1831 of the mass of nuclear particles. It follows therefore that the best measure and possible source of gravitational attraction is the gluon/quark interaction. The quark is a particle of matter and the gluon is a particle of energy, but both interchange. We cannot say that a gluon exchanges with a quark and the identity of these particles is maintained. The chromodynamic action takes place at unimaginable speed and gives new meaning to E=mc2.
Gravitation theory has assumed that a particle named the graviton, with zero rest mass, spin2 and velocity c would carry the force between everything- including itself! The theory also involves a supersymmetric particle, the gravitino. To date, no-one has managed to devise a satisfactory mathematical theory to show how this would work. The main problem is that as soon as a particle acts on itself, infinities arise. There is feedback in the effect and the mathematics. The extreme weakness of such a particle also makes observation almost impossible. In order to boost its energy to a point where it could be observed, an accelerator the size of the solar system would be necessary. The graviton is likely to remain theoretical.
Perhaps, like the author of this piece, others may have questioned how a graviton can escape from within a black hole, the most powerful gravitational attractor known. After all, ‘nothing’ can escape from a black hole as it would be necessary to gain an escape velocity greater than the speed of light, and this is not allowed according to the rules of general relativity. Only Hawking radiation fizzles at the event horizon on the edge of the hole, allowing it to reduce in mass and this radiation reduces in energy in relation to its mass and cannot therefore communicate the gravitational potential. The answer, according to the graviton theorists, is provided by the uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics. The position of the graviton, being massless may be inside the black hole or it may be outside, at any distance according to the rules of probability. The distribution works out as reducing with the square of the distance from the centre of mass, according with Newton’s theory. The theory should also take into account the additional factors of Einstein’s theory, inversely proportional to the velocity of light, c, to the power of 4. Uncertainty allows massless particles, such as the photon and graviton to be anywhere in the universe. The lifetime of a particle is related to its mass/energy, as momentum is related to position. Life/time x mass/energy must be indeterminate by at least h bar= 6.6 x 10-22 MeV. Where rest mass is zero the life/time and range uncertainty is infinite. The probability of such a massless particle being found or interacting with another reduces with the square of the distance for geometrical reasons. The area of the surface of a sphere of space in which an interaction may be detected enlarges with the square of the distance from the centre. This law of inverse proportion to the square of distance controls gravitational and electromagnetic forces. An important point, which is rarely made, is that the gluon is also a particle, like the photon and graviton, with zero rest mass. There is nothing in the laws of quantum mechanics to prevent it being found anywhere in the universe either. The gluon is normally confined to the nucleus, as are quarks, but in high energy experiments it is thought that hadrons, particles with high masses, have been created from quark/gluon interactions when protons are ‘smashed’ and these appear away from the collision.
In the following part, I will propose that the gluon may be the mediating particle of gravity, acting in a way which is more likely to produce a workable theory of gravitation. If so, matter would be held together and space curvature would be formed by two almost identical particles, the photon and gluon, acting together, the gluon exchanging with nuclear particles and creating a ‘fog’ of virtual particles around a massive object. The photon interacting with this’ fog’, or ‘QOG’ as referred to in this piece, and falling as a result of complex scattering, observed at large scale as gravitational lensing. The photon then drags matter with it by the much stronger electromagnetic interaction, the force being slightly asymmetric in order to allow drag to take place. The proposal also gives a natural explanation for the equivalence of inertial and gravitational mass. This is also true in the SED theory, in which the electron/ photon interchange with the zero point field is the primary action.
GRAVITATION BY VIRTUAL PHOTON LENSING IN ‘QOG’ AND ASSYMETRIC REPULSION DRAG
One of the recent findings of astronomy would have delighted Albert Einstein. It seems that his proposal for an anti-gravitational force, his cosmological constant, may be correct after all. A repulsive force is apparently forcing apart the distant galaxies in an inexplicable way. Dark energy has been proposed as a solution, but in reality no-one understands the cause. The force appears to be incredibly weak and has only ‘got going’ in the last 5 billion or so years. We should also remember that the most distant galaxies have a different view of the universe to our own. We can look out to a limit bound by the age of the universe since the big bang, which is about 14 billion years. It is thought that spacetime is almost flat, so an astronomer in the distant galaxies can see ours at the beginning of time and, if they turn and look in the opposite direction, they can see other galaxies say 12 billion light years away. We cannot see these because their light cannot travel to us in 12 billion years. Some astronomers have estimated that the universe continues beyond our visible limit by a factor of 10 to the power of 100, though how anyone can estimate the unknowable is hard to explain. However, the likelihood that there is vastly more out there should not be forgotten. At present, cosmologists have measured the various constituents of the universe, which is delicately balanced, allowing galaxies to form and the elements of which we are composed. The constituents are 74% dark energy, 22% dark matter and 4% matter. No-one understands the composition of the first 96%.
The following is put forward as a simple explanation for a repulsive universal force. The universe is known to exhibit asymmetries such as in the action of colour forces, the breaking of mirror symmetry and the preponderance of matter over antimatter. Without imbalances our components would not have formed.
Consider a large equal number of equal charged particles forming an independent body. Half carry a negative charge and half carry a positive. This balance will attract and repel equally, so overall no force will act. This is why we do not feel this enormous force, except when we try to penetrate a surface and have to stop. The gentle force of gravity lands our feet on the floor but can push no further. Only when a few negatively charged electrons are brushed away from a surface can we witness the local electrostatic attraction, as when a balloon sticks to a ceiling. When charged particles are accelerated magnetic forces will be created but again these balance out.
But, now add a small number of similarly charged particles, either positive or negative. In all circumstances repulsion will result in the body as a whole. The equal number of charges will pair and equate. The excess same charges have to repel each other. These charges would distribute evenly throughout the body.
Professor Sir Roger Penrose has pointed out that, in the 1950s, Bondi and Lyttleton proposed a theory of such an imbalance when the question of the steady state or big bang was being debated. I had written to him suggesting the same idea and proposing that a slightly uneven number of charges in the universe would allow the photon to drag matter with it when falling in a gravitational field. Being the eminent physicist that he is, he had the open mind and kindness to bother to reply to an unqualified person. However, since the 1950s, a lot has been discovered about the source of mass in the nucleus and the anti- gravitational forces acting in the universe. Perhaps it is time to have another look at the possibilities of such a theory.
If an imbalance were to be in the region of 10 to the power of 37, this would lead to the force of gravity being the same when matter came to a compressive stop against a massive object in a gravitational field or in an accelerating frame in the vacuum. It may also help explain the small repulsive cosmological force discovered recently. Such an idea has radical implications.
The graviton becomes redundant. The falling photon would take all matter with it.
The reason for the photon falling in a gravitational field has to be explained.
The second proposal was to explain the falling of virtual photons through gravitational lensing. In other words, gravitational lensing is not the result of gravity or gravitons pulling light towards a massive body, but the cause of the slowing of time and deflection. Gravitational lensing has long been part of general relativity theory and observed. As light passes a massive body it ‘slows’ as it passes through a zone closer to the source of gravity where time runs more slowly than in outer space. It also falls, doubling the movement towards the centre of mass. The passage of light is now understood to be a series of interchanges through the vacuum of space or through translucent materials, where the deflection and velocity are further reduced. It is not the same photon that travels all the way from a distant star and arrives on our retina.
The composition of the vacuum is not fully understood, as the particle ‘zoo’ has expanded and the possibilities of quantum mechanics have become very complex. However, the vacuum of space is understood to be filled with a fizzing ‘sea’ of virtual particles of all sorts. Every electron is surrounded by other virtual particles which modify the electromagnetic action. The latest research at Imperial College has measured the distortion from a perfect sphere of the electron and found that it is almost symmetrical to a factor equating to a few metres compared to the diameter of the solar system. This is not what supersymmetric theory predicted.