Monthly Archives: February 2016

Significance of the Detection of Gravitational Waves published by the LIGO Team in February 2016

It is with great pleasure that I post this article by Dr. rer. nat. Jochem Hauser, Scientific Director of HPCC-Space GmbH on the significance of the recent discovery of gravitational waves.  Dr. Hauser is the co-originator of Extended Heim Theory along with Dr. Walter Dröscher.

Image: ©2015  S. Ossokine , A. Buonanno (MPI for Gravitational Physics)/W. Benger (Airborne Hydro Mapping GmbH)

On 11 February 2016 the LIGO and VIRGO Collaboration groups reported on the detection of gravitational waves as predicted by Einstein’s GR in 1916. The signals were actually measured in September 2015, but the teams took time to verify their results, most likely to avoid the embarrassment of the BICEP2 experiment.

However, the gravitational wave detection was hailed by numerous journals and newspapers as a revolution in physics, providing much incorrect information, not to say hype. For instance, read the partly unscientific language used in Scientific American about this effect.

It should be noted that there was already a Nobel prize for the indirect detection of gravity waves in 1993 (Hulse & Taylor) based on the orbital period of a binary star system. Hence, their direct measurement is not a surprise at all. The energy radiated (narrowing the joint orbit) from the binary pulsar PSR 1913+16 has been calculated from linear theory and exactly matches the observations.

In the first edition of this book it was already stated that Einstein’s GR is the only answer to gravitational fields in the cosmological realm and all competing theories are more or less ruled out. But this does not mean that extensions to GR are impossible or unnecessary.

According to EHT any gravitational theory predicting gravity must be fully compatible with Einstein’s GR, except for predictions of physical processes that take place inside a black hole. Even for very small accelerations it seems unlikely that GR will fail. It should be noted, however, that according to the late German physicist B. Heim, gravitational attraction disappears (is zero) at distances comparable to the Schwarzschild radius rS. Is this were the case, there would be no gravitation inside a black hole, and matter within the black hole would enjoy some kind of asymptotic freedom, similar to quarks in a proton or neutron.

It is important to note that gravitational plane waves (reducing the degrees of freedom in the metric tensor) are predicted by the linearized Einstein equations that are similar to the Maxwell equations. However, GR is a nonlinear theory. In order to confirm Einstein’s non-approximated GR, one must first ascertain that the nonlinear field equations of Einstein allow for waves also. They do. This is not trivial as there is, in principle, graviton-graviton interaction. The graviton particle as the mediator boson for gravity follows from the duality between the metric field hμν and the particle picture, that is, this concept of quantum mechanics is introduced into GR. Because photons do not carry electric charge themselves they are not subject to this kind of nonlinear interaction. The metric field is a second rank tensor and it can be shown that gravitons must have spin 2. The proof is difficult because this must hold in the relativistic case, too, see E. Wigner 1939, while the photon has spin 1.

The crucial point therefore is: can the gravitational signals detected be interpreted with Einstein’s linearized equations or are the full nonlinear equations needed? It seems, from the black hole masses involved (about 29 and 36 solar masses), that the linear theory may not match the measured data (this needs still to be confirmed). Relativistic (nonlinear) effects become spectacular, when GM/rc2 ≈ 1. The merger of these two black holes is assumed to have taken place at half the speed of light with a final orbital period of about 250 Hz. The two black holes are then supposed to have coalesced into a single black hole with the equivalent of about 62 solar masses. This scenario is the accepted physical interpretation for the time being – provided of course that no other, more plausible, alternatives can be found. If, however, these two black holes, supposed to have generated the gravitational waves, possess an extension similar to the diameter of the Sun, the magnitude of the relativistic gravitational effects becomes about 6 − 8 × 10−5 on the surface of the black hole, and the linear theory should be correct. On the other hand, astronomers have, for the first time, measured the radius of a black hole in September 2012 and are claiming that it is about 5.5 ×rS , where ris the Schwarzschild radius (light cannot escape from the black hole if it is closer than rS). For the Sun r≈ 2.95 km. In general, it is believed that black holes have a Schwarzschild radius rabout 100,000 times smaller than the Sun. If this were the case, then the gravitational waves detected would be a confirmation of the validity of the nonlinear field equations, provided of course, that the underlying assumption of two merging black holes as the source for gravitational waves is correct.

If the effect can be explained by the linearized field equations, then any gravitational theory that gives the same linearized equations as Einstein’s theory would have passed the test, too.

There is, however, another principle to detect gravitational waves of low frequency – which cannot be measured by LIGO – based on the usage of compact gravity pulsars that are also emitting radio waves. The goal is to measure the changes in the distances between the Earth and the pulsars caused by the spacetime distortion created by the emitted gravitational waves, when they are passing over the Earth. This change in distance is causing a delay or advance in the radio pulse arrival time. Because this effect is extremely small, M. Kramer et al. at MPI Bonn, Germany are searching for the most rotationally stable pulsars, known as millisecond pulsars.

In conclusion, the experiments seem to have found gravitational waves, but this effect might be explained by a linearized gravitational theory. Moreover, if Einstein’s nonlinear equations turn out to be necessary to explain these results (more likely), we are talking about the science of November 1915.

The much more important question remains unanswered, as pursued by Einstein from 1915 till the end of his research activity: is there an interaction between gravity and electromagnetism? This means are there gravitational fields that are not cosmological fields, that is, whose source are not static or moving large masses? Hints for the existence of these gravitational fields may be found in the recent experiments by Tajmar, Graham and Gravity Probe B experiment as discussed in detail in Sec. 8 of “Introduction to Physics, Astrophysics and Cosmology of Gravity-Like Fields.”

Theory, in the form of EHT, is predicting such a conversion from electromagnetism to gravitation, induced by the phenomenon of symmetry breaking (not known at Einstein’s time), and GR consequently needs to be supplemented by these so called conversion fields, i.e., those gravitational fields resulting from electromagnetic fields. This means that three additional gravitational particles (bosons) are proposed, allowing the generation of gravity-like fields similar to the generation of magnetic fields.

From an experimental point of view, however, the LIGO measurements are extremely sophisticated. The teams claim to be able to see distance changes in the range of 10−19 m that is much less than the radius of a proton!

A polarized gravitational wave traveling in one direction acting on a circle of particles is leading to an oscillatory motion, compressing and elongating the diameter of the circle, forming an elliptic shape, but also does rotate the axis of the ellipse. Hence, a signal in both arms of the laser interferometer should be detected.

As a next step, the space antenna LISA Pathfinder from ESA will begin operating in March 2016. We may expect to see a confirmation of gravitational waves by the full scale experiment eLISA, planned for 2028.

Jochem Hauser, 18 February 2016

edited 29 Feb 2016 – GD

Extreme fields, dark energy and MOND

In the recent book by Dröscher and Hauser, mention is made of upcoming experiments by Martin Tajmar to test the Heim experiment. Tajmar is the Professor and Chair, Institute of Aerospace Engineering Technische Universitåt Dresden where he has published on a wide range of propulsion-related topics. As such it may be useful to review recent revisions to EHT including the dropping of the gravitophoton, vgp  (composed of positive and negative components) as the cause of an attractive and repulsive gravitational effect. Instead, another composite particle is suggested as the source.

In EHT there are three carrier particles for gravitation: the graviton, the gravitophoton and the quintessence particle. Collectively they are known as “gravions.” The graviton for Newtonian gravity is represented in the listing of ordinary matter (OM) as vGN in row H0, and is the boson mediating forces between gravitational fields in the cosmos, “GN” being the indicator of Newtonian gravitation. Its analog in  non-ordinary matter (NOM) is the strong graviton, represented in row H1 as ṽG. The tilda (~) above the v denotes an extreme gravitomagnetic or gravity-like field. The bosons with the tilda above (ṽ) are the “cold” or “conversion” particles ṽG, ṽgp, and ṽq which are not generated by mass but by delayed symmetry breaking, similar to the cryogenic symmetry breaking that leads to superconductivity.

The second cosmological gravitational particle is the gravitophoton, designated as vgp. The cosmological version of this gravitational boson mediates the gravitomagnetic field BGN as predicted by general relativity. The cold version of this boson is generated during delayed symmetry breaking when a photon “γ” representing the electromagnetic force becomes an imaginary photon “γI” of imaginary mass but real charge, and converts to the cold gravitophoton ṽgp which decays to produce extreme gravity-like fields.

The decay paths for the vgp cosmological gravitophoton and the ṽgp cold gravitophoton are indicated in the H9 hermetry form. The cosmological gravitophoton decays to a very weak gravitational field via vGN and an extremely small expansion of spacetime denoted by the quintessence particle ṽq, which is shown in hermetry form H10. In short vgp → vGN + vq. The cold gravitophoton decay path ṽgp → ṽG + ṽq does so with gravity-like fields with much greater magnitude due to predicted changes in the gravitational coupling constant.

The third cosmological gravitational boson is termed “quintessence” vq and is responsible for the interaction of dark energy and spacetime. How do the quintessence particles vq and ṽq interact with spacetime? EHT proposes that they are responsible for the interaction between the dark energy field vde and the spacetime lattice, neither of which have hermetry forms but which indirectly causes spacetime to expand.

The cold gravitophoton decay path ṽgp → ṽG + ṽq is the first stage of the decomposition of the cold quintessence particle. It also undergoes a decay to constituent particles ṽq → ṽ+q + ṽq.  The quintessence particle is thought to be a composite particle make of attractive and repulsive components. The vq boson mediates the repulsive interaction between the spacetime field and dark energy, vde. EHT theorizes that vde is also a composite particle composed of two dark energy component particles (v+de + vde), one attractive and one repulsive. Each of the components (ṽ+q and ṽq), in turn, influences its corresponding dark energy component (v+de and vde), and this interaction mediates the spacetime lattice producing either an expansion or contraction. As we will see later, this is a likely mechanism for the “parity violation” results observed by Tajmar. See the table below.

It could be said that dark energy is a direct consequence of spacetime. In EHT the formation of the spacetime lattice (negative energy density, possessing information and structure) is invariably accompanied by the formation of the dark energy field (positive energy field, negative pressure) in order to satisfy energy conservation.

Might the interaction between the spacetime field and dark energy which is mediated by the quintessence particle play a role in the distribution of dark matter inside and outside of a galaxy?

According to EHT particles are not observable in de Sitter space (our spacetime) when they possess a negative resting mass.  Particles of dark matter are suggested to possess negative resting mass, therefore they must exist in a dual spacetime — a “dual” de Sitter spacetime designated DdS3,1.  Those particles of dark matter vdm and vdm are not directly observable by us, but their gravitational interactions with ordinary matter are felt in our spacetime.

The de Sitter spacetime of general relativity (GR) is not replaced, but is extended by the concept of dual spacetime.  De Sitter dual spacetime is required to account for the different types of matter that might exist outside GR.  The two spaces, de Sitter space and dual de Sitter space, are entangled and share the same spatial coordinates, but are separated by their time coordinates.  Dual spacetime also differs from our de Sitter spacetime by employing an imaginary speed of light “i c” as well as an imaginary time coordinate “– i t”.  Those imaginary attributes of dual spacetime open avenues to attaining speeds greater than the speed of light (c).  This is the “parallel space” referred to in the original award-winning paper by Dröscher and Hauser.

As Dröscher and Hauser suggest in their book, “… dark matter is assumed to be of negative mass existing in the form of a heavy particle with mass mdm approximately -80.77 GeV, and a dark matter neutrino  with a negative mass mvdm approximately -3.2 eV.”   They continue, “…because of the negative mass of the dark matter particles, they should neither be present in the reactions of the LHC [Large Hadron Collider] experiments, nor be found in any dark matter experiment… since dark matter particles are supposed to carry negative energy and cannot be generated in an accelerator…”  EHT forecasts that direct detection of dark matter particles by the LHC and other groups, is impossible.

We know that dark matter appears only in the halo surrounding galaxies, so EHT would have to account for not only dark matter’s presence in galactic halos, but also its lack of detection within a galaxy. However, the attractive nature of dark matter alone would not appear to be sufficient to account for its distribution outside of galaxies. That leaves only attractive ordinary matter and repulsive dark energy to explain the observations about dark matter’s distribution. MOND theory seeks to explain why spinning galaxies do not fly apart. Its proponents posit that Newton’s law is modified for accelerations below 10-10 m/s2. MOND gives the correct value required for this low acceleration value. Can EHT also give an equally correct solution in solving for dark matter? Dark matter appears only in the halo surrounding galaxies, so EHT would have to speculate on not only the degree of gravitational attraction in the halo, but also why it does not occur within a galaxy.

AllSymmetries

One possibility is that the predicted dual nature of dark energy (attractive and repulsive) may influence the distribution. If dark energy, which causes the accelerating expansion of the universe, is a composite of two particles then how it interacts with normal matter might explain dark matter’s distribution. Assume that dark energy is composed of a repulsive vde particle causing spacetime expansion and a second dark energy particle v+de causing spacetime contraction. Observed dark energy would be the sum of the two different types of dark energy. How would visible matter within a galaxy interact with the components (v+de + vde) of dark energy?

It is proposed that Einsteins cosmological constant “⋀” (often considered equivalent to dark energy) is the summation of components ⋀ + ⋀+ where ⋀, associated with dark energy particle vde , causes spacetime to expand (positive energy density) and ⋀+, associated with dark energy particle v+de , causes spacetime to contract (negative energy density). Each component may have a large value, but because they are nearly equal (there being a slight expansion of the universe) the difference between the two can be quite small. If the cosmological constant represents the current balance between ⋀  and ⋀+ , then in the present era where spacetime is expanding, the cosmological constant is balanced at ⋀ >0, which means that ⋀+ <0.

It is already known that the acceleration within a galaxy points toward its center, and that it is the same acceleration that exists for all galaxies. One difference within galaxies, as contrasted with intergalactic space, is the density of visible matter. The density of matter (but not dark matter) inside of a galaxy increases by a factor of ten million. The authors postulate that a surplus of vde particles associated with a slight excess of ⋀  is collected in the halo and, to a lesser extent, inside the galaxy. However, the ⋀+ is neutralized inside a galaxy due to the fact that a galaxy contains a large amount of ordinary matter. Overall this increases the acceleration toward the center of the galaxy may be the basis for the MOND acceleration, one alternative theory to explain gravitational effects around cluster galaxies.