something that electromagnetic waves pass through? This post will put
forward a theory that empty space does contain an "aether" which is
made up of matter particles that we are all familiar with.
The idea that I would like to propose is that the
aether is made up of nothing more than an array of alternating protons
and electrons. They would be lined up in a manner similar to how Na/Cl
ions are lined up in a salt crystal. The bonding between the
proton/electron pairs would be something similar to what we currently
call neutrons and these neutrons would exhibit some dipole activity.
You could effectively think of the aether as a sea of neutrons. However,
these particles may or may not be the same thing that we know as neutrons
in atoms. For example, normal neutrons decay rapdily out of the atom, the
aether particles do not, so there may be some difference.
You could just as easily call them neutrinos or Zero Point
Energy particles or dark matter or whatever. The important thing is that
they are made up of normal protons and electrons in some binding
arrangement which produces a dipole. This theory does not presume to
explain the composition of protons/electrons, but starts simply with
the postualate that a proton/electron dipole combination exists.
Normal matter appears in the aether as an abberation of the ordered aether
array. Just like if you took a salt crystal and jammed in an extra Na
ion, it would not fit and would tend to distort the array and it would
stick out. Likewise we see a normal proton as an extra proton in the
aether array. We do not notice the background aether neutrons because
they are so neutral and pervasive. In general, neutrons are hard to
detect due to their neutral charge. All real matter appear as clumps
of electrons/protons which do not fit into the otherwise very ordered
array in the aether. I have an associated theory which says that real
matter atoms are also constructed of an alternating series of proton
and electrons in an approximately octahedral shape. (However this
is a topic for another post).
Support of such a theory would be:
1. If permittivity is how well a substance transfers electromagnetic
radiation, then I would think that a uniform sea of neutrons would be able pass
all frequencies. Since it is perfectly uniform and there is nothing
blocking or interfering with the wave, you would not expect any
attenuation. If there were real mass particles imbedded in the
aether, this could have all sorts of affects decreasing permittivity.
So a neutron sea is compatible with a high permittivity which is what
we measure in empty space.
2. Magnetism can be supported in a neutron dipole. The way that the
neutron aether explains magnetism is that magnetic fields are caused
by a dipole arrangement of the neutrons. Each of the neutrons has a
positive/negative dipole and when these dipoles are all lined up, we
see a magnetic field. Moving charges, somehow cause the aether to
line up. The more lined up the dipoles, the greater the magnetic field
strength. If you bring together fields where the dipoles are facing in
the opposite direction, the electrostatic repulsion generated by the
dipoles creates a repulsive force. Likewise, if areas of similar
dipole arrangement are brought together, the complementary dipoles
create an attractive force. In this way, the magnetic force is related
to the electrostatic force and is in fact caused by the same
electrostatic force. This eliminates magnetism as a separate force,
but is rather a geometric arrangment of the aether particles.
3. Permeability is a materials ability
to magnify an existing magnetic field. So for iron, when it
surrounded by the aether which is lined up in a particular direction,
it causes the imbedded iron matter particles to also become aligned.
In the process, they add their own magnetic field to the existing one
and the magnetic field becomes magnified. If the aether is made up of
neutrons and these are in fact the carriers of the magnetic field,
then there is really nothing to help magnify the magnetic force and
so we would expect the permeability to be quite low - close to zero,
which it appears to be. So the permeability of a neutron sea matches
what we observe for empty space.
4. The aether is said to be extremely dense and solid. An ordered
array of protons/electrons would indeed be extremely dense. It would
be much denser than ordinary matter and would be about as dense as the
nucleus of ordinary atoms. Since it is an alternating cubic array with
each proton surrounded and attracted to six electrons, it would be
solid and able to transmit transverse waves. In this model, the speed
of sound through the aether is what we actually measure as the speed
of light.
We normally consider solids like steel as being something which matter
cannot pass through. You might think that the density of the aether
would prevent any movement. However, this would actually depend on
how tightly bound the aether particles were. Being generally neutrally
charged, there may be very little holding together the aether particles
which allows matter to slip by almost as if it wasn't there. However,
there are some measureable effects such as inertia.
5. Inertia can be explained by the amount of energy required to push
aside the proton/electron or neutron bonds in the aether. The larger
the mass, the more bonds have to be broken, so this explains why it
takes more energy to move a massive object than a light object. You
have to add more energy to push past more aether. I would imagine that
the aether is small enough to fit through the spaces between even the
most dense materials, so the surface area of a real mass would be
exactly proportional to the mass (I think). As a mass passes by the aether, the
neutrons bonds would reform as the aether array snaps back together.
This action of snapping back together, releases forward energy back to
the object. This is an energy equal to the amount that got the mass
moving in the first place, so the mass keeps on moving by being pushed
in the back and breaking bonds in the front. So a mass keeps on moving
once it is pushed which is inertia. So inertia can be explained by a
neutron sea.
6. The creation of matter and antimatter in high energy experiments
can be explained if you think of the aether array being shaken hard
enough that it knocks out a proton or electron out of the array and
places it far enough that it cannot rejoin the array. In this case,
you would get an extra proton which doesn't fit into the array and you
would get a hole in the array where the proton used to live. The hole
is antimatter and would appear to be negatively charged, not because
it is negatively charged, but because it has created an area of
unbalanced electrons in the aether. If the hole and the proton get
together again, the proton/antimatter hole is annilihated and the
aether matrix reforms sending electromagnetic waves throughout the
aether in an observable burst of energy.
7. The mass of protons/electrons can be explained if you think of
electrons as being able to slip through the aether matrix much more
easily than protons. Certainly a proton is not just the reverse of an
electron. The most peculiar property of the electron is it's mobility
through matter, whereby protons are pretty much stuck in place in the
atom. We might expect that since electrons are mobile in normal
matter, that they should also be mobile in the aether. What we measure
as mass, is actually how easily something flows through the aether.
Electrons flow about a 1000 times more easily than protons, so we see
it as 1000 times lighter in mass. This doesn't mean it is somehow
smaller in volume as has been depicted, only more slippery. In terms
of electrostatic strength, it is just as "large" as a proton.
8. The aether can explain the method used to transmit electrostatic
force. Why should a proton be attracted to an electron? If the aether is
a compressible medium, it can explain the basic physical mechanism
for the attraction between protons and electrons. It has been shown
that 2 objects vibrating in phase in a compressible medium will
attract while similar objects vibrating out of phase repel in
accordance to the 1/r^2 law. This is known as the Bjerknes forces. The
ambient thermal energy causes protons/electrons to ring like bells and
it is the interactions of these waves that we detect as the
electrostatic force. This model would predict that protons emit an
extremely high frequency which is identical to electrons but phase
shifted. Perhaps the reason for this is that there is some maximum
vibrational frequency which protons/electrons can have and that the
only difference you can have at this frequency is a different phase. Just
by chance, half of the particles take on the proton phase and the other
half take on the electron phase.
9. Neutrinos can be explained as aether particles in motion. Collisions could
knock lose an aether neutron from the ordered array. So instead of lying
static in the matrix, it is moving relative to matrix, and it is displacing
aether particles along the way. This would remove energy from the collision
but since the particle is still part of the aether and neutrally charged, it
is undetectable. For example, when a neutron breaks down into a proton and
electron, part of the energy is given to the neutrino aether particle and
the electron and proton separate at less than 180 degree angles. The
neutrino was never part of the original neutron. The mass of a neutrino
would be dependent on how
slippery an aether particle is. I would imagine it is very slippery
since neutron aether bonds appear very weak and should appear as
having very little mass if any.
10. The aether can explain the slowing of atomic clocks in gravity fields.
If space were filled with neutrally charged aether particles, they
would all exhibit an attraction to a strong electrostatic force. This
is a basic electrostatic principle. I have another theory which
postulates that gravity is simply a positive electric charge on
the Earth such that the Earth acts as a large positively charged
sphere is space. I have many posts discussing the details of how this
can work and how the Earth and Moon don't repel each other due to the
identical charge and why the gravitational field appears weaker than the
electrostatic field. (search frankli...@yahoo.com). In a nutshell, the
moon and Earth do not repel each other because the neutral mass in the
Earth/moon far outnumbers the charged particles and the neutral mass
is attracted to the strong electrostatic force. So if you have 1000
neutral particles attracting and 1 positive charge particle repelling,
the attraction wins. Similarly charged objects do not always repel. The
gravity force is weaker because it is a diluted electrostatic force.
If 1 in every 10^38 atoms were missing 1 electron, this would generate
a force which has the same magnitude as gravity.
If the electrostatic gravity theory is true, then the density of
the aether will be higher in a higher gravitational fields due to
compression forces. Gravity pulls down and compresses the aether
just like water pressure in the deep sea is higher
than on the surface. With this higher density means that any
mechanical process from point A to point B will have to traverse more
aether particles than it would in a lower density area. The increased
number of particle interactions effectively increases the amount of
time (in an absolute sense) that it takes for something (like the
ticking of an atomic clock) to happen. Thus, clocks in a high gravity
field tick slower than one in a lower gravity field. This is a simple
and intuitive mechanical explanation that shows that rate that time
passes is a function of the local environment. This is similar to some
ZPE theories which speak of ZPE density, however, I have provided ZPE
with a physical layout description, so it is less vague and mysterious.
What Einstein attributed to a warp in space causing shifts in time is
really a density effect. This shows you exactly how space is "warped".
The warp, however, has nothing to do with how gravity attracts astronomical
objects. Gravity is strictly an electrostatic effect. Other relativistic
effects such as length shortening and time shifing in objects moving
near the speed of light might also be explained as density effects
such that an object moving as such speed compresses the aether ahead
of it creating a zone of higher aether density which causes time
shifting effects similar to gravity.
These are just a few of the musings I've had about the aether. I make
no claim of right or wrong, but I think giving the aether a physical
description is vital in trying to explain how such an aether might
work. I think part of the problem in searching for the aether is that
we didn't know what to even look for. Such a physical description of
the aehter may also give rise to experiments to
show that empty space is actually filled with neutron-like particles. I
welcome your comments.