Scivillage.com Casual Discussion Science Forum

https://www.advancedsciencenews.com/new-...tal-force/

INTRO: A fresh look at gravity challenges long-held assumptions about one of nature’s most familiar yet puzzling forces. In a new study, two researchers argue that gravitational attraction is not a basic force at all, but an effect that emerges from deeper quantum processes tied to electromagnetism. If confirmed, the theory could help explain mysteries that have long resisted standard models — including the origins of dark matter and the energy accelerating the universe’s expansion.

The work, published in Journal of Physics Communications, reimagines gravity not as a force stitched into the fabric of spacetime, but as something that arises from the quantum-level behavior of ordinary matter. Ruth Kastner of the University of Maryland and Andreas Schlatter at the Quantum Institute in New York developed a framework in which space and time themselves are not fundamental but result from electromagnetic interactions between charged systems like atoms and molecules.

“The creation of a real photon creates ‘the fabric of spacetime’ by giving rise to spacetime events and their structural connection; namely the emission event, the absorption event, and the real photon which links these,” said Kastner. “In short, spacetime events, along with their structural connections, emerge from these transactions.” (MORE - details)

I could never really hop on the whole "curved space" bandwagon. If that is gravity, what is causing the curve? Well it's the force of gravity! But that is the effect of the bending, not the cause. And so round and round it goes. It excites me that physics is opening its mind up to other less circular explanations for this most baffling of nature's phenomena.

"matter tells spacetime how to curve, and curved spacetime tells matter how to move"

Gravity is basically just the wake of matter. Like a boat sending out waves as it moves. And other waves effect how the boat moves.

IF this were correct .. it should be possible to shield the field between two heavy objects by putting a third object between them .. the inverse square of the interactions with the intervening object would reduce the interaction between the outer two. I don't think we see that.