Issue 36 of Shape: Space

What exactly is Space? This is a fundamental area. As soon as we attempt to address such a question, and get beyond simplistic “Nothingness”, we find ourselves in serious trouble – for nowhere can we find a total absence of everything – the Ultimate Void!

Perhaps the place we usually consider to deliver it must be so-called Outer Space –the “empty” gaps between the heavenly bodies, but we cannot even be sure of that. Can we say that every single morsel of anywhere (even in that Outer Space) contains absolutely Nothing?

And, the reason for this is surely the very fact of Light Propagation! There can be no doubt that Light is coming in to us from literally every direction, and the more our telescopes improve, the more previously invisible sources are found to exist and can be seen.

Such ideas beg the question “Doesn’t Light need something to propagate it though Space – must it not have some form of vehicle or medium to transmit it?” As you can see, the question isn’t entirely trivial, is it? Our assumption that it is totally empty is a useable simplification, in many circumstances, but it surely is not the last word?

And these questions are not only concerning its nature. For as soon as we get into such questions, other problems arise, for whatever we consider, we have to “ensure” (if that is possible) that what we extract from Reality, and consider and manipulate are valid concepts, and are dealt with via valid methods.

Yes, Space is quite a subject. So, let us proceed!

Read the issue

Dark Matter?

No, I’m afraid you've missed it.

It’s behind you!

 

Pardon me, as I am forced to point out that you cannot see Dark Matter for two very good reasons.

First, it is invisible and well nigh totally undetectable. And second, it is also absolutely everywhere, and you can’t see the trees for the wood!

As you study in your underground laboratories, and your ever higher powered Accelerators, seeking the undetectable Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), you are completely missing the NIPs that are all around you, in such abundant profusion that they are, inconsequence, even more difficult to detect.

NOTE: with these Non Interacting Particles (NIPs), I miss out the “M for massive”, because the particles suggested have equal and balancing amounts of matter and antimatter.

Yet, the indirect evidence for these entities is also absolutely everywhere, though we invariably choose to ignore it. These particles exist as a “Paving” throughout the Universe, which actually propagates all Electromagnetic Radiation, AND they do it in quanta! NOT, I must immediately emphasize, by actually moving about themselves as carriers, but by a bucket-brigade kind of passing on of individual quanta from unit-to-unit!

[By the way, the Speed of Light, though indeed a constant, isn’t a Universal Constant: but merely the speed of transfer between these equally spaced out elements of this Paving].

They are not usually translational objects, though we humans can make them so in our many infernal devices.

Welcome to the neutritron! (Which is sometimes it is erroneously identified with the high-energy, short-lifetime version – the positronium as its normal state, which it isn’t!).

This is a mutually orbiting pair, consisting of one electron and one positron.

Perhaps surprisingly, you are already familiar with it in its modes of Pair Annihilation and Pair Production, when it either dissociates from a neutritron into its component parts, or is involved in the union of these two into a mutually orbiting, and stable pair, if the appropriate form of encounter of its soon-to-be components occurs.

It can also carry extra electromagnetic energy, above that necessary to maintain its base orbit, in exactly the same way that the atom does, via the promotion of its mutual orbits (somewhat different, of course, to the atom, because of the absence of a determining nucleus).

Oh, and by the way, I’m afraid it is also causing major confusion at the edge of the Universe, where the Paving ends.

For there, it causes Total Internal Reflection (or something very similar) of all electromagnetic radiation. And it causes trouble by giving not only by this means many extra virtual stars and galaxies, but by, also and confusingly, delivering multiple images of the same single source, yet apparently from quite different directions, as well as from different times in its past history.

If some great Being designed this particle, he (or she) must be giggling uncontrollably as the evident confusion caused by the particle, is shown to affect our most eminent scientists!

And, to compound the felony, this particle and its Paving has enabled the solving of the anomalies of the Double Slit Experiments, and is rapidly burying the ubiquitous Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Theory.

Sleep well tonight, my beauties!

“But, how are these particles also the source of Dark Matter?”, you may well ask.

Well, all this talk about mutual annihilation of matter and antimatter makes me think what is actually happening is that it that it is them becoming an undetectable combination of matter and antimatter, as in the neutritron. Could that Universe-wide collection of hidden matter + antimatter BE Dark Matter?

Can We Blame The Messenger?

In merely beginning to read yet another article by Michael Brooks in New Scientist (2928) on entanglement and other things in Quantum Theory, I realised that the properties (all ascribed to a disembodied quantum of electromagnetic energy) simply could NOT be correct! I don’t mean, of course, that they don’t exist, but I do mean that some, at least, are definitely not properties of the conceived-of Photon.

Brooks chooses to bring in Spin, and though he can only really describe it as the property of an extended material object, there is also little doubt that he is also insisting that it is a property of the Photon – conceived of as a totally disembodied gobbet of electromagnetic energy.

Now, immediately to a physicist, such as myself, the warning lights begin to flash (in fact several of them!). The first is triggered by the idea that you can have a gobbet of pure energy, totally separate from any matter whatsoever. The second is set off by the idea of such a gobbet actually spinning, or undergoing whatever it is that is termed “a spin”.

And, in the same few initial paragraphs, he makes it clear that we have absolutely NO choice, but to accept such consequences of Quantum Theory (or more precisely the Copenhagen Interpretation of it), because its statistical/probabilistic equations deliver very accurate predictions as long as the problems are posed overall, rather than for particular individual entities.

But why?

The Ptolemaic Theory of the Solar System, in its most developed form, gave accurate predictions, but it was, nevertheless, totally wrong!

Are we really to promote mere Forms, or Patterns, to be the determining essence of all things? We cannot possibly do that, for a very simple reason.

A particular Form can be used to predict in a whole causally unrelated range of phenomena. Forms are universal patterns, and not common causes. And this means that though they can exist all over the place, to make them the determinators of Reality is foolish.

How can these very different phenomena, which conform to a single Form, be assumed to have the exact same cause, and a purely formal one at that? That would only be the case if that Form were capable of being a physical cause itself! And, the language of these scientists always gives away their erroneous standpoint. They say, “This equation makes the phenomenon happen in this particular way!” They are clearly idealists and have actually abandoned materialism! They insist that things don’t happen due to concrete physical causes: they happen in conformance to the appropriate abstract equation.

You have to ask, “Why?”

I could go on with this line of argument, but it will never convince the Copenhageners – so, I’ll take another tack.

Gobbets of entirely disembodied electromagnetic energy (Photons) cannot exist, and certainly cannot move across totally Empty Space at the Speed of Light! In fact, nothing can move at that speed.

So, how does propagation occur, for we know that it does?

If we do assume that particles of matter can exist in such an environment, these will also be prohibited from moving at the speed that has been established for electromagnetic radiation. So, how can we transcend the seeming impasse?

We can do it via the presence of a Universal Paving of so-called Empty Space, populated with relatively stationary material entities (or receptacles), which can not only hold gobbets of E-M energy, but also pass it on, bucket-brigade-fashion across the paving, The material entities involved must act as receptacles for such gobbets of energy, NOT as is sometimes assumed, to carry it across the Empty Void, but to merely pass-it-on.

Now, such suppositions DO NOT, as they stand, deliver any sort of acceptable theory. Many questions still need to be answered, and a wholly new approach made clear.

To achieve an acceptable theory we must:

- Explain how these receptacles hold individual quanta of E-M energy

- Show how these receptacles can be wholly undetectable

- Explain the constant Speed of Light in a very different way

The model for addressing the first question is very clearly the atom, which has no difficulty in fulfilling this requirement. So, an analogous structure to the atom will have to be involved.

The second question can be resolved with the example of the positronium, which is itself undetectable, being constituted from a negatively charge, ordinary matter, electron, and a positively charged, antimatter positron. And though this has certainly been indirectly detected in high-energy accelerators, its very short lifespan in those extreme circumstances doesn’t have to pertain in Empty Space.

The constant Speed of Light becomes a property of the Paving, being the speed of induction of a quantum of E-M energy from one receptacle to the next.

Now, this is by no means a thoroughgoing definition of this Paving and its constituent parts, and we must here forego such a detailed exposition. But, the papers delivering this are already available on SHAPE Journal, so can be accessed very easily when required. Search the journal for Empty Photons.

But, we must reiterate an important difference with this Theory. The quanta never exist outside of such receptacles in propagation. Neither do the receptacles themselves move across Empty Space to deliver their E-M cargo. The movement is ONLY of the quanta, but not as moving, independent entities in Empty Space, but as induced gobbets passed from receptacle to receptacle.

So, within the purpose of this paper, we have a dilemma –

“Which of the evident features that we discern in experiments, are properties of the electromagnetic energy (the always temporary contents of our receptacles), and which are properties of the receptacles themselves?".

Of course, to answer these questions, it matters what the receptacle is made of, and how it can hold a single quantum of electromagnetic energy, and the answers are already known.

Our receptacle must have much in common with the atom! It must contain at least two sub particles with one orbiting the other, to allow it to be able to carry out the very same getting, holding and delivering of quanta that an atom can do.

Indeed, though initially defined purely theoretically, our proposed receptacle has been found to actually exist.

Now, it took a long time to find it, not least for alternative theories for so called Pair Production, did not include such an entity, but it was finally identified as the source of such events in High Energy Accelerators (as already mentioned above).

After this discovery, it became abundantly clear that this positronium, was indeed made from a mutually orbiting pair of an electron and one positron, and with these cancelling out both in Matter and in Charge, the invisibility of the particle in space was easily explained.

Now, the proposal for a universal paving of all of Empty Space had also long been discounted, because no such paving had ever been detected. But, if it was composed of these positroniums, that would explain the pavings invisibility too. And as the sub particles mutual orbits could be promoted to higher energy levels, it was clear that the required functions of getting, holding and delivering quanta (as in the atom) would be available.

Clearly, the instability of the positronium in High Energy environments, at first argued against it being able to carry out these roles, for its lifespan was momentary in such conditions. But, of course, the main habitat for these entities in this theory would be in Empty Space, where their stability would be assured.

Returning to the “messenger and the message”, the problems stated by Brooks fall away, as the various properties detected would be from TWO related entities – the messenger – positronium, and the message – the carried quantum of E-M energy.

Such phenomena would, henceforth, have to include an extra and transforming player – the Paving. And, instead of Wave/Particle Duality, and the other anomalies of Copenhagen, we would be able to attach the contradictory properties to different constituents.

Issue 26 of SHAPE

 

Form & Emergence

Once again, this issue is somewhat different to either the usual arbitrary collection of papers in what is best described as a Standard Issue, or the set of closely related contributions that demands their own dedicated Special Issue. There has also a development of our Standard form into what might be called a Magazine Issue, and yet here we are again with yet another different offering. For the papers included here are of a special type: they are corrections or amplifying updates of previously published papers, and rather than just referring to their antecedents , it is clear that such modifications will always be necessary. So the emphasis in this Issue is put upon this absolutely essential aspect of the real development of ideas, and departs from the usual incrementalist way of most such papers in the usual Professional Journals.

You may wonder what the differences involved may be, but it is in the Philosophy of such “improving” contributions, for they are not so much mere corrections as conceptual developments and hence are unified in the clear emergent aspect involved. In a sense we are hoping that the basic standpoint behind all the contributions to SHAPE, and their developments are emphasized as the necessary way forwards in today’s Science. We, as always, focus upon the actual transitional trjectories, which are involved in such developments. We do not believe in the cumulative, incrementalist repository of individual additive contributions, but the ever deeper revelation of the creative processes that are essential in real understanding. In a sense we do not emphasize the delivery of Forms, as do the deliverers of equations, but the study of the Forms of Form and their Emergences. Enjoy!

Read the new issue here

Empty Photons?

A Basis for the Speed of Light

My recent musings on the actual contents of 'Empty' Space, have led to a position in which I now postualte that it is packed "full" of what I term "empty photons". Now, of course, such a conception poses a series of questions. For example, what happens to a photon of zero energy content? Can it continue to exist? Also, what might such photons actually do? If they had movement, it would seem that they should continue to move. And what happens when such photons collide?

I have NO idea of the answers to any of these questions, so that in the following muse, I will have to make the best assumptions that I can muster. If you thought neutrinos were a conundrum, how about zero-energy photons?

Now, my idea of empty photons seems to fill in the answers to a few of my recent self-addressed questions on the Speed of Light. If Space is full of photons with very, very low (if not zero) energy content, and these are the carriers of all E-M radiation, then the situation can be likened to an enourmous box, packed full with snooker balls. Any disturbance on one of these balls will be immediately transmitted to all immediately adjacent balls, then these, in turn, will deliver the distrubance onwards by the same method. The Speed of Light with this model is then NOT the speed at which a photon travels in totally empty space, but, on the contrary, the speed at which transfers take place photon-to-photon. The photons stay where they are but pass on the E-M disturbance. Also, the Speed of Light does not present the usual conundrum of somehow being independant of the speed of the producing source. Obviously, with this model, the speed of any source is irrelevant. Indeed, this Speed becomes a property of light's transmission medium - the packed photons which constitute Space itself.

The Michaelson-Morely experiments do not present an inexplicable contradiction, but, on the contrary, give excellent evidence for my case here. Any disturbance is immediately transmitted to Space itself, which, when composed solely of its empty photos, has a FIXED speed of transfer, which equals C - the Speed of Light. Notice that whenever the disturbance has to travel through Matter it is slowed down, and related to its frequency or colour, whereas all light in Space of whatever frequency is propogated at the exact same velocity = C. Notice also, that our model of packed photons makes for good simplification of wave propogation in Space too. The disturbance being communicated equally in all directions, with a leading edge (or Wave Front). Important features such as interference are also straight forward products of this model, as particular photons would receive disturbance from two seperate sources and would either sum or cancel just as required.

Remember, of course, the disturbance is an E-M one - it involves NO consequential movement of the photons. Their movements are quite seperate, and exactly what they will be, requires some more thought. Certainly, the packing of these photons is not obvious. Maybe they are as tightly packed as our snooker balls-in-a-box. They don't need to move to communicate E-M disturbances. Indeed, they could be in incessant movement with inumerable mutual collisions, for these would not affect their role in propagation (as is the case with sound waves through a gas). What is clear is that if collisions of photons did take place, and caused changes of direction, there could be a completely "random" spread between the resultant directions by now, and this would perhaps facilitate the propagations by effectively making the movements cancel out and be irrelevant. I can conceive of the photons not moving very far at all, but subject to so many collisions, as to be seen as to be vibrating.

Certainly the theory of empty photons is in its infancy, but I will publish another more in depth paper on the subject via the Shape Journal very soon. Watch this "Empty" Space.