https://thedebrief.org/gravity-mystery-c...cal-model/
INTRO: Gravity is a common feature of life on Earth that all living creatures experience on a daily basis. Yet it is subtle enough that, for the most part, it goes unnoticed.
That is, until we drop an egg, spill our coffee, or an expensive vase falls off a shelf in our homes, reminding us that even the weakest of the four fundamental interactions known to physics, while hidden in plain sight, still exerts a significant influence on everything around us.
Some 1029 times weaker than the appropriately named weak force, which governs the radioactive decay of atoms, gravity is so subtle that it has virtually no effect at the subatomic level. Yet at the scale where interactions between objects are observable to us, gravity is the force that literally commands the motions of planets, as well as that of stars and galaxies. Even light, which universal laws govern to be the fastest thing in existence, cannot escape the influence of gravity.
Despite its ubiquity, gravity also remains one of the great mysteries of modern physics. While there remains no complete or perfect theory as to how gravity works, the best description of it remains the one Einstein gave us in 1915 with the publication of his general theory of relativity. To Einstein, gravity can be thought of not so much as a force acting on objects, but instead as a way to observe the curvature of spacetime itself that results from variances in the distribution of mass throughout the universe.
For example, a large solar body will curve spacetime around it such that a smaller planet will be drawn into orbit around it. In a similar fashion, even smaller objects will also be attracted to the gravitational influence of that planet, and may thereby enter an orbit around it, becoming a moon.
Today, physicists continue to work toward expanding on Einstein’s fundamental ideas to resolve the question of gravity in a way that also works harmoniously with our knowledge of quantum mechanics. A quantum gravity theory, in essence, would be significant to scientists because it would not only unite our macroscopic and subatomic perspectives of reality, but would also potentially allow gravity to be incorporated mathematically along with the other three fundamental interactions into a long-sought “theory of everything” the likes of which physicists currently aspire to formulate.
Several theories have been advanced over the years, aimed at helping physicists get a better handle on what gravity and its relationship to other phenomena in our universe may represent. However, one problem that has arisen from past attempts at resolving the lingering questions about gravity is that they often fail to account for all of the theoretical components required for a true theory of quantum gravity.
Matthew Edwards, who has worked for years at the University of Toronto Library, is also a longtime independent researcher of theoretical topics that include gravitation physics. This interest led him to edit the volume Pushing Gravity: New Perspectives on Le Sage’s Theory of Gravitation, which drew from the work of the 18th-century Genevan physicist Georges-Louis Le Sage, who posited that there were mechanical forces at work behind the mystery of gravity.
According to Edwards, modern attempts at creating an all-encompassing quantum theory of gravity “are plagued by the weak theoretical foundations of quantum physics,” which he believes has led to hypotheses that “gain more respectability than perhaps deserved.”
“The huge gap between gravity and quantum physics cannot have left other fields unaffected,” Edwards recently wrote, proposing the novel idea that “the solution to these issues comes from general relativity—or, more precisely, an optical analog of it.”
In a new paper entitled “Optical gravity in a graviton spacetime” (Optik, Volume 260, June 2022), Edwards puts forward a novel theory of gravity based on past observations which have hinted at there being an optical medium of spacetime that not only serves as an analog for the observable effects of gravity, but which could also provide a physical means that might potentially help account for it. Such observations include the way light is deflected as it passes by mass, which as Edwards notes is “mathematically equivalent to the refraction of light in an optical medium with a density gradient.” This is not mere happenstance to Edwards, who further argues that the explicit correlation between these two observations has proven useful in recent explorations of things like gravitational lensing, the effect where light is bent as a result of the distribution of matter between an observer and a far distant light source.
The Debrief recently caught up with Edwards, who in addition to discussing the origins of his unique perspectives on an optical analog for gravity, also provided several insights about the role gravity waves and hypothetical particles like gravitons play in his theory, and what this could all mean in terms of resolving one of the greatest questions in modern physics... (MORE - details, the interview)
INTRO: Gravity is a common feature of life on Earth that all living creatures experience on a daily basis. Yet it is subtle enough that, for the most part, it goes unnoticed.
That is, until we drop an egg, spill our coffee, or an expensive vase falls off a shelf in our homes, reminding us that even the weakest of the four fundamental interactions known to physics, while hidden in plain sight, still exerts a significant influence on everything around us.
Some 1029 times weaker than the appropriately named weak force, which governs the radioactive decay of atoms, gravity is so subtle that it has virtually no effect at the subatomic level. Yet at the scale where interactions between objects are observable to us, gravity is the force that literally commands the motions of planets, as well as that of stars and galaxies. Even light, which universal laws govern to be the fastest thing in existence, cannot escape the influence of gravity.
Despite its ubiquity, gravity also remains one of the great mysteries of modern physics. While there remains no complete or perfect theory as to how gravity works, the best description of it remains the one Einstein gave us in 1915 with the publication of his general theory of relativity. To Einstein, gravity can be thought of not so much as a force acting on objects, but instead as a way to observe the curvature of spacetime itself that results from variances in the distribution of mass throughout the universe.
For example, a large solar body will curve spacetime around it such that a smaller planet will be drawn into orbit around it. In a similar fashion, even smaller objects will also be attracted to the gravitational influence of that planet, and may thereby enter an orbit around it, becoming a moon.
Today, physicists continue to work toward expanding on Einstein’s fundamental ideas to resolve the question of gravity in a way that also works harmoniously with our knowledge of quantum mechanics. A quantum gravity theory, in essence, would be significant to scientists because it would not only unite our macroscopic and subatomic perspectives of reality, but would also potentially allow gravity to be incorporated mathematically along with the other three fundamental interactions into a long-sought “theory of everything” the likes of which physicists currently aspire to formulate.
Several theories have been advanced over the years, aimed at helping physicists get a better handle on what gravity and its relationship to other phenomena in our universe may represent. However, one problem that has arisen from past attempts at resolving the lingering questions about gravity is that they often fail to account for all of the theoretical components required for a true theory of quantum gravity.
Matthew Edwards, who has worked for years at the University of Toronto Library, is also a longtime independent researcher of theoretical topics that include gravitation physics. This interest led him to edit the volume Pushing Gravity: New Perspectives on Le Sage’s Theory of Gravitation, which drew from the work of the 18th-century Genevan physicist Georges-Louis Le Sage, who posited that there were mechanical forces at work behind the mystery of gravity.
According to Edwards, modern attempts at creating an all-encompassing quantum theory of gravity “are plagued by the weak theoretical foundations of quantum physics,” which he believes has led to hypotheses that “gain more respectability than perhaps deserved.”
“The huge gap between gravity and quantum physics cannot have left other fields unaffected,” Edwards recently wrote, proposing the novel idea that “the solution to these issues comes from general relativity—or, more precisely, an optical analog of it.”
In a new paper entitled “Optical gravity in a graviton spacetime” (Optik, Volume 260, June 2022), Edwards puts forward a novel theory of gravity based on past observations which have hinted at there being an optical medium of spacetime that not only serves as an analog for the observable effects of gravity, but which could also provide a physical means that might potentially help account for it. Such observations include the way light is deflected as it passes by mass, which as Edwards notes is “mathematically equivalent to the refraction of light in an optical medium with a density gradient.” This is not mere happenstance to Edwards, who further argues that the explicit correlation between these two observations has proven useful in recent explorations of things like gravitational lensing, the effect where light is bent as a result of the distribution of matter between an observer and a far distant light source.
The Debrief recently caught up with Edwards, who in addition to discussing the origins of his unique perspectives on an optical analog for gravity, also provided several insights about the role gravity waves and hypothetical particles like gravitons play in his theory, and what this could all mean in terms of resolving one of the greatest questions in modern physics... (MORE - details, the interview)