Category Archives: Gravitation

The ACER, The ERDG And Gravity

A mathematical similarity between gravity and electromagnetism has long been noted and commented upon. There are also qualitative analogies that are occasionally mentioned but beyond noting the fact that the gravitational effect around a a gravitating body falls off at the same 1/r2 rate as the density of the electromagnetic radiation being emitted by the body, little thought is given to this rather striking overall correlation. Coupled with the observation that light moving through a gravitational field behaves as if it were traversing a medium with a density gradient, there would seem to be at least a strong indication of a causal relation between gravitational effects and the electromagnetic field (EMF) especially since a gravitational field is only posited, not observed

It will argued here that all gravitational effects can be attributed to the interaction between matter and electromagnetic fields. First, two definitions:

  1. the ACER (Ambient Cosmic Electromagnetic Radiation} that pervades the Cosmos. This is the cosmological scale field that constitutes The Spectrum of the Universe as described in the document of the same name. This radiation does not have a density gradient but is approximately uniform in distribution around any free-standing body.
  2. the ERDG (Electromagnetic Radiation Density Gradient) which is the aggregate EMF of all the electromagnetic radiation being emitted omnidirectionally by a radiating body. The strength of that field falls off as 1/r² and therefore it has a density gradient

The Deflection of Light in a Gravitational Field

The EMRG comprises the medium through which the ACER (all external radiation)travels in the vicinity of a radiating/gravitating body. The ERDG is a transparent medium with a density gradient. Light passing through a “gravitational” field behaves as if it were passing through a medium with a density gradient. The ERDG fully accounts for the “gravitational” effect of the curvature of incident light — without invoking an otherwise invisible gravitational field. Essentially the ERDG constitutes a particular type of EMF that causes the effect traditionally attributed to an undetected gravitational field.

Gravitational Attraction

Initially let us consider the isolated case of one star, ignoring for the moment any nearby stellar neighbors. The star in this case has surrounding it both the omnidirectionally sourced ACER and its own locally self-produced ERDG. The ACER that falls on the star directly is absorbed and eventually reemitted as part of the ERDG. There is an additional inflow of radiation from the ACER that can be attributed to the ERDG curving the ACER passing closest to the star onto the surface.

All of this radiational inflow is omnidirectional onto the surface of the star. In a sense the inflow attributable to curvature can be thought of as a “pulling on the nearby ACER but as it is a “pulling” in all directions there is no net effect on the star’s motion through the ACER. The ACER is essentially an inertial medium. Since the ACER is being curved by the ERDG of the star it is reasonable to think of the ERDG as the gravitating medium of the star. The curvature of passing radiation in the vicinity of a gravitating medium is an observed fact predicted by General Relativity but it is also predicted and observed behavior for light passing through any transparent medium with a density gradient

Now we introduce a small, but not infinitesimal, nearby test particle, a planetary object the size of the Earth, with some velocity relative to the star that is not significant with respect to Relativity Theory. Let us also assume that the initial trajectory is toward but not directly at the star. This test body will interact with the ACER that surrounds it in exactly the same way that the star does, with the exception being that the planet is only passively reradiating the radiation from the star that falls upon it – it is a passive not active emitter of electromagnetic radiation. Consequently the radiation density at the planet’s surface will be <<< than the radiation density at the surface of the star and the “gravitational effect” of the planet on the star-planet system will be much weaker.

As the planet draws closer to the star two simultaneously acting effects are taking place. Along the line that joins their centers of mass over an area that is defined by the projection of the planet’s shadow, the star will be curving the nearby passing ACER but no direct inflow will be taking place in that shadow region only a “pulling in” of the passing ACER that lies between the two bodies. A similar but smaller inflow is taking place over the surface of the planet facing the star.

At the same time the planet is passing through the star’s ERDG, with the surface of the planet closest to the star experiencing a stronger “gravitational effect”. That effect is directly attributable to the ERDG – the radiation density from the star is higher on the closer side of the planet. The primary higher density effect is that physical processes slow down in the denser radiation.

The result of the higher density will be the same as it is in any medium with a density gradient – among other things it will slow the passage of the nearer surface through the ERDG medium producing a curvature of the planet’s path while also inducing a rotation. The curved path of the planet is analogous to the curved path of light being caused by a slowing of light in the denser portion closer to the surface of the star. This behavior is typical in mediums with a density gradient. Gravitational attraction then is entirely explicable as an interaction effect between matter and an EMF with a density gradient (ERDG).

Galaxy Clusters

Gravitational lensing around a galaxy cluster requires considerable amounts of undetectable Dark Matter to “fit” the observations (of gravitational lensing) to the standard model. The excess observed curvature implied relative to calculations based on the mass distribution can be attributed to the fact that the x-ray hot plasma that constitutes up to 90% of a cluster’s mass has a higher radiation output than an equivalent stellar mass would produce. That excess high energy radiation will produce a stronger “gravitational” effect than the observed mass alone would predict using the standard gravitational models that correlate gravitational effects with mass density rather than radiation density.

This higher radiational output is due to the diffuse nature of of the cluster gas which is radiating outward from within its entire volume whereas a star is only radiating from its surface area; effectively the x-ray hot gas has a much lower Mass/EMR ratio than a star or galaxy.

This x-ray hot gas constitutes 90% of the cluster’s mass and produces a large excess of high density, high frequency radiation. And that radiation tracks the “gravitational” effects. That’s what’s there. What’s not there is Dark Matter. If gravitational effects are attributable to the density of the cluster’s EMF rather than the unobserved mass-dependent “gravitational” field, the mass discrepancy problem evaporates and with it the need for Dark Matter. Mercifully.

The Cosmological Redshift

It is a demonstrable fact that the General Relativity based math (Schwarzschild solution) that describes gravitational redshift can also be used to calculate the cosmological redshift for an Expanding Spherical Wavefront (ESW) of electromagnetic radiation. The resulting redshift resembles the cosmological redshift of the standard model which uses a different GR solution (FLRW) describing an Expanding Universe. See: Gravitational Redshift & Expanding Spherical Wavefronts

The mathematics involved here is not satisfactory because the Schwarzschild solution does not take into account the variation of light speed in a gravitational field. However, the qualitative picture presented, of an ESW losing energy as it is gradually absorbed by its encounters with galaxies and other intervening matter, demonstrates once again that an effect that can be described with standard gravitational math can be understood as arising from the direct interaction of Matter and electromagnetic fields.

The ACER is the aggregate of all the ESWs streaming through the Cosmos. A galaxy’s ERDG becomes a continuous outflow of ESWs on cosmological scales as the density gradient becomes negligible.

Coda

It is certainly fair to say that none of the foregoing constitutes “proof” that Matter-EMF interactions are responsible for all the various observed effects attributed to gravity. However science does not deal in “proofs” – those lie in the realm of mathematics and mathematics is not science. Science and physics deal in empirical evidence and the facts as presented here constitute, at minimum, strong evidence that the observed gravitational effects are correlated with observed Matter-EMF interactions.

As mentioned these correlations are not unknown and have been remarked upon elsewhere (excluding the ESW section) but that is all that has transpired. No serious research, either empirical or theoretical, has been conducted to determine if that correlation indicates a causal relation. Yet, MTP offers no explanation for the physical cause of gravity at all. Why then, this peculiar incuriosity? It seems attributable to the scientific academy having some legacy math that has been handed down for a century or more (if you count Newtonian gravity) and though neither the Newtonian nor Einsteinian gravitational models work on the scale of galaxies and galaxy clusters there exists a dogmatic belief, despite this obvious evidence to the contrary, that those models constitute Universal Laws.

The irrational result is that modern theoretical physicists appear to believe they know everything there is to know about gravity because they have some math (that doesn’t work well) and therefore there is no reason to do any research into what they do not know (the cause of gravity) because if it was important someone would have taught them about it in graduate school. Something like that. There really is no sensible explanation for the situation.

Gravitational Redshift & Expanding Spherical Wavefronts

An earlier post on Expanding Spherical Wavefronts made a qualitative argument that an ESW should sustain an energy loss as it expands through the Cosmos. In a more recent post it was argued that gravitational effects are a consequence of matter/electromagnetic-radiation interactions. As a follow-up, this post offers a quantitative demonstration that standard gravitational-redshift-based-math can be applied to an ESW to generate a cosmological redshift correlated with distance:

Terms & Definitions:
z = ((1-(rs/Resw))^(-1/2))-1
rs = Schwarzschild radius = 2GM/c2
Res = successive radii for an Expanding Spherical Wavefront in lightyears
Resw = successive radii for an ESW in meters
M = Calculated mass for a sphere at selected radii, assuming an average cosmological density of 1E-26 kg/m3. The average density is a free parameter in the model but the results are highly sensitive to this particular value. A variation of +/- 10% produces outcomes that seem unrealistic.

All in all, this is nothing more than a proof of concept – but it is an intriguing one. Two pieces of standard physics can be put together to produce a cosmological redshift-distance relation that is similar to the one presented by the standard model. The three graphs of redshift-distance are taken from the table and illustrate scale differences over the range of the table. A short discussion follows the 3rd graph.

Res (Ly) Resw (meters) rs M (kg) z
17.50E+077.08E+232.22E+191.48E+461.57E-05
21.00E+089.44E+235.25E+193.52E+462.78E-05
32.50E+082.36E+248.20E+205.50E+471.74E-04
45.00E+084.72E+246.56E+214.40E+486.96E-04
51.00E+099.44E+245.25E+223.52E+492.79E-03
61.50E+091.42E+251.77E+231.19E+506.32E-03
72.00E+091.89E+254.20E+232.82E+501.13E-02
82.50E+092.36E+258.20E+235.50E+501.79E-02
93.00E+092.83E+251.42E+249.50E+502.60E-02
103.50E+093.30E+252.25E+241.51E+513.59E-02
114.00E+093.77E+253.36E+242.25E+514.77E-02
124.50E+094.25E+254.78E+243.21E+516.16E-02
135.00E+094.72E+256.56E+244.40E+517.78E-02
145.50E+095.19E+258.74E+245.85E+519.65E-02
156.00E+095.66E+251.13E+257.60E+511.18E-01
166.50E+096.13E+251.44E+259.66E+511.43E-01
177.00E+096.61E+251.80E+251.21E+521.73E-01
188.00E+097.55E+252.69E+251.80E+522.46E-01
199.00E+098.49E+253.83E+252.57E+523.49E-01
201.00E+109.44E+255.25E+253.52E+525.02E-01
211.10E+101.04E+266.99E+254.68E+527.50E-01
221.20E+101.13E+269.07E+256.08E+521.24E+00
231.30E+101.23E+261.15E+267.73E+523.10E+00
241.31E+101.24E+261.18E+267.91E+523.71E+00
251.32E+101.25E+261.21E+268.09E+524.74E+00
261.33E+101.25E+261.24E+268.28E+527.00E+00
2713,350,000,0001.26E+261.25E+268.37E+521.00E+01
2813,400,000,0001.26E+261.26E+268.47E+523.49E+01
2913,405,000,0001.26E+261.26E+268.48E+521.75E+02
3013,405,100,0001.26E+261.26E+268.48E+522.39E+02
3113,405,200,0001.26E+261.26E+268.48E+526.48E+02
Graph1 Rows 1-6 of table
Graph2 Rows 1-26
Graph3 Rows 1-27

Discussion

There are several interesting aspects to these results. The initial radius of 75M lightyears is arbitrary and lies just inside the 100Mly radius that can be considered to encompass the “local” Cosmos. The final radius in the model goes asymptotic at the range imposed by the math.

What is happening in the math is the Schwarzschild radius (rs) is catching up with the Expanding Spherical Wavefront being modeled. This is because the rs is increasing in proportion to the enclosed mass which is increasing as Resw3 while the ESW itself is only increasing as Resw2. This is the inverse of what happens (according to the Schwarzschild solution to GR) in the case of a mass undergoing gravitational collapse. In that situation the collapsing body converges inward toward the rs as the mass remains constant.

It should be noted that the rs is an artefact of the model; it is a coordinate singularity and not physically significant. This indicates that the model has broken down at that point by virtue of having produced a division by zero result. It can be argued that this is a consequence of the model not taking into account the variation in the speed of light in a gravitational gradient.

It is also striking that the redshift of the ESW model goes asymptotic at approximately the same cosmological distance (13.4Gly) that the standard model redshift does (13.8Gly). The difference is that in the ESW model the redshift is a consequence of the energy loss to the expanding spherical wavefront attributable to its gradual absorption by intervening galaxies. In the standard model the energy loss is a consequence of a model-inferred but unobservable “universal expansion” – which leaves the lost energy physically unaccounted for.

One other point of note, in the ESW account of redshift the cosmological conditions at the source of the redshifted light are assumed to be approximately the same as they are in our “local Cosmos”. In the standard model, of course, the cosmological conditions at the largest implied redshift distances are thought to be significantly different due to the nature of the evolving “expanding Universe” that the model assumes. The recent JWST observations contradict the standard model’s picture of an evolving “Universe”.

Inertia, Gravity, & Electromagnetic Radiation

This very interesting paper originally caught my attention because it demonstrates that Einstein rejected what the paper calls the “geometrization” of gravity and did so throughout his career not just at the end of his life. On a recent rereading I was struck by something else which is easy to forget – the subtly of Einstein’s thought.

The geometrization of gravity is an awkward term because it elides the central problem which is the reification of spacetime. It is well known that Einstein’s Relativity Theory employs the geometric math of Gauss-Riemann. What is at issue is whether that geometric math refers to a physical spacetime that causally interacts with matter and energy (electromagnetic radiation). Many argued that it did while Einstein rejected that interpretation as unphysical and uninformative.

Beyond the issue of what Einstein did not believe, the paper illuminates a seldom discussed subject – what Einstein did believe Relativity Theory accomplished, the unification of gravity and inertia. This unification is not found in the famous gravitational equation of General Relativity but in the lesser known geodesic equation. From the paper:

We found that (i) Einstein thought of the geodesic equation in GR
as a generalisation of the law of inertia; (ii) in which inertia and gravity
were unified so that (iii) the very labeling of terms as ‘inertial’ and
‘gravitational’ respectively, becomes in principle “unnecessary”, even if
useful when comparing GR to Newtonian theory.

While it is well understood that the Equivalence Principle* played a role in Einstein’s thought process while developing GR the importance of the geodesic equation as a formal realization of the EP is certainly not widely acknowledged as far as I am aware. The implications of that unification are profound.

One of the peculiarities of the modern theoretical physics community is their apparent disinterest in determining the physical cause of the gravitational effect. The reason for this disinterest is a philosophical attitude known as instrumentalism – if some math describes an observed outcome adequately then a causal explanation is superfluous. Instrumentalism is a variant of the scientifically baseless philosophical belief called mathematicism.

The purpose of science is to investigate the nature of physical reality, not to sit around fiddling with poorly constructed mathematical models of physical reality that do not remotely make sense when you inquire of the model, What does the math mean with regard to the physical system being modeled? The answer that typically comes back is a peculiar kind of bullshit that can be thought of as Big Science Babble.

Superposition Of States is Exhibit A of BSB on the quantum scale. Almost all quantum scale babble winds up at SOS or at Wave-Particle Duality. SOS tells us that an electron is never at a particular position until it is observed.

When an electron is detected it is always, not surprisingly, at a particular location but according to the mathematicists at all other times when not being observed the electron is in a SOS – it is spread out over all of its possible locations as described by some math (the wavefunction). How do they know this? Because the math doesn’t know where the electron is, so it can’t be anywhere in particular. Sure, of course.

BSB is rife on the cosmological scale. According to the standard model of cosmology the Cosmos is 95% made up of some invisible stuff while the stuff we actually observe provides the remaining 5%. How do scientists know this invisible stuff is there? Because it has to be there to make the Big Bang model work and everybody knows the BB model is correct because they said so in graduate school, so the invisible stuff has to be there, like it or not. Sure, of course.

At the root of all BSB, of course, is mathematicism. A mathematical model dictates an absurd story about physical reality which we are then supposed to believe without evidence because math determines the nature of physical reality. If mathematicists with pieces of paper saying they are scientists believe in BSB, shouldn’t you? No, you should not.

Physical reality is an afterthought to mathematicists for whom only math is of interest. That’s why no effort is being expended in the scientific academy to understand the physical cause of gravity; research funding is controlled by mathematicists. And since they already have some math that kind of works (as long as reality contains things it does not appear to contain), well that’s good enough – for mathematicists.

In real science, physical events and behaviors occur as a consequence of physical interactions. Those interactions can be matter/matter (collision), matter/radiation (emission, absorption, reflection), or radiation/radiation (interference) in nature. There is a good argument to be made that all observed gravitational and inertial effects arise as a consequence of matter/radiation interactions:

  1. By observation, everywhere in the Cosmos that there is no matter, there is electromagnetic radiation.
  2. Light traversing a gravitational field behaves as it does in a transparent medium with a density gradient. All approximately spherical gravitating bodies emit electromagnetic radiation omnidirectionally with a density gradient that falls off as 1/r2.
  3. The gravitational effect surrounding a spherical gravitating body falls off as 1/r2.
  4. The gravitational field then is just the Ambient Local Electromagnetic Radiation field surrounding a gravitating body.
  5. In the intergalactic regions, far from any significant gravitating bodies there is only the ubiquitous Ambient Cosmic Electromagnetic Radiation.
  6. The ACER is, to a good approximation, isotropic and this cosmically sourced electromagnetic field does not have a density gradient. It can be thought of as the inertial field.
  7. This unified physical account of gravity and inertia is consistent with Einstein’s mathematical description of a unified gravity and inertia in the geodesic equation.**

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

*The Equivalence Principle Einstein employed is now known, since the mid 20th century, as the Weak Equivalence Principle to distinguish it from later, dubious extensions, added with little scientific justification after Einstein’s death in 1955.

**The forgoing does not constitute conclusive evidence that gravity is an effect of matter/electromagnetic-energy interactions – but it is evidence based on empirical observations. In contrast, there is no empirical evidence for the concept of gravity as a fundamental force.

Forces are themselves not things, they are effects. Of the four fundamental forces claimed by science to exist, only the electromagnetic force has any empirical basis. In fact though electromagnetic radiation is no more a “force” than a golf club is a “force”.

A golf club exerts a force on a golf ball by striking it, resulting in an acceleration of the ball. That applied force can be quantified using known mechanical laws. The term force describes that interaction but force is just a descriptive term for the interaction between the golf club and golf ball, it is not the golf club nor is it a separate thing in itself. The same analysis applies to EMR; it is not a force but it can exert a force when it strikes a physical object.

The Radiation Density Gradient II

I want to correct and extend a point raised in the thought experiment of the previous post. Under consideration, a blackbody the size and density of the sun placed in the InterGalactic Medium. Such a body should come to equilibrium with the Ambient Cosmic Electromagnetic Radiation. The ACER has never been properly accounted for in its entirety, though a preliminary effort has been made,

The blackbody, being in equilibrium, is emitting as much energy as it is receiving and it therefore has an energy density gradient surrounding it consisting of the outbound radiation which drops off in density as 1/r2, the radial distance from the center of the blackbody. The underlying ACER density (presumed approximately constant) does not change with distance and may well be considered an inertial field.

Now we flip the fusion switch and make the blackbody a more realistic astronomical object, a star. Compared to the blackbody, this star has a relatively enormous radiation density gradient consisting of all the omnidirectionally emitted radiation produced by the star. The density of that radiation will again drop off as 1/r2.

When a remotely sourced electromagnetic wave passes close by a star the wave is observed to curve as if it were traversing a medium with a density gradient. This is commonly attributed to a gravitational field though such a field has never been observed.

What is observed are a curvature of light and a radiation density gradient. It strains credulity to believe that those two physical facts are uncorrelated. This in turn suggests that observed gravitational effects, commonly attributed to an unobserved gravitational field, are in fact a consequence of matter-electromagnetic energy interactions.

The Radiation Density Gradient

A thought experiment: Imagine a spherical blackbody the size and density of the sun. Now place that body deep in the InterGalactic Medium. In such a location a blackbody will be absorbing all of the Ambient Cosmic Electromagnetic Radiation that flows continuously through any location in the IGM. Eventually we should expect the sphere to settle into a state of equilibrium with the ACER, continuously absorbing and reemitting all the energy it receives.

This means that there must exist a Radiation Density Gradient surrounding the blackbody consisting of all the inbound and outbound radiation. By normal geometric considerations we should expect the gradient to drop off as 1/R2, R being the radius.

The question is, just how much energy is that? The answer depends on the surface area of the sphere, which is easy to calculate, and the energy density of the ACER which doesn’t seem to be cleanly known, Various frequency bands have been observed to varying degrees. This recent survey of the Cosmic spectrum as a whole suggests that the aggregate nature, behavior and effect of the ACER has not been properly and fully assessed.

Given some reasonable value for the ACER density it would be possible to estimate the RDG of the sphere. With a reasonable value for the RDG a calculation could then be made, using optical considerations, of the curvature to be expected for the path of a light ray passing through the RDG, feeding that curved light back into the RDG calculation. The result could then be compared to the standard curvature predicted by General Relativity but first the additional energy directly radiated by the sun would have to be factored in. Something to think about. Somebody else will have to do the math though. That’s not my gig.