1. Introduction
The
Phi-Wave Aether (PWA) concepts presented here originated in the attempt to
understand what the electromagnetic fields really were, in particular how a
stationary field could exist in an aether that my intuition suggested was some
kind of fluid. How can a fluid support
the equivalent of a hill? How can a
field move instantaneously in parallel with its source (which, as I understand
it, is what Einstein thought and what is currently taught)? Equally, how can a fluid aether support the
kind of complicated mechanism that Maxwell envisaged, with its vortices
interleaved with little ball bearings[1]? A theory is required that explains how
electromagnetic fields and radiation can induce not only push and pull effects
but also, on occasion, turning motion.
If we reject out of hand the quantum theory notion that this is all
achieved by exchange of particles, flying through the void and colliding with
each other, what is the most plausible alternative?
The
model I have arrived at seems consistent with what I have later come to know
about the quantum world and the rest of physics. The theory assumes an aether that can flow and turn but I do not
assume, as many aether theories do, that radiation necessarily has “angular
momentum”, so there is no need to envisage space filled with anything as
complicated as vortex-like “photons”.
It is merely filled with longitudinal waves.
Where,
as here, in the rejection of the idea that all radiation has angular momentum,
the model conflicts with accepted theory, it is usually for good reason. The
experimental facts are often open to alternative explanations. Not infrequently in Modern Physics, the
accepted ones are nonsensical from the point of view of what might be called
“physical logic”. A complete essay
could be written on experiments that have, in my view, been misinterpreted, but
I shall refrain, relegating the ones I know most about – the “Bell test
experiments”, claimed to provide evidence of “quantum entanglement” – to the
Appendix and mentioning others where relevant.
The
PWA theory is not mathematical. I feel
strongly that it is as yet beyond us to even attempt a mathematical model and,
indeed, the attempt would be counterproductive as far as understanding and
communication are concerned. The 20th
century seems characterised by the determined pursuit of formal models,
constructed prematurely on flimsy evidence and hampering real progress. In its initial formulation, in January 2000[2],
the PWA theory may have looked sufficiently simple to model mathematically, but
the more I have found out and the more actual phenomena I have tried to
understand the more elaborate it has become and the less certain about some
facets. The basic ideas, though, have
so far stood the test of time.
2. The Aether and Phi-Waves
2.1 Evidence for
a fluid aether
The
aether, by definition, is the light-carrying medium. (In the Phi-Wave Aether theory it is more than this – it is the
only substance in the whole universe.)
In its basic state, it is the
vacuum, and it is evident to our senses that we can move freely through
it. In the 19th century
physicists would have liked to be able to accept the idea of an aether, the
experiments of Young, Fresnel, Faraday and others having proved so convincingly
that light was some kind of wave[3],
but they had reached an impasse. They knew that light could be polarised, and
they thought that this implied that it was necessarily a transverse wave. A
transverse wave cannot, they thought, propagate through a fluid, and for an
elastic solid to be able to propagate transverse waves as fast as light it
would have to be almost rigid. The
aether would therefore have to be static, and this was ruled out towards the
end of the century by the Michelson-Morley experiments. Einstein, at the beginning of the 20th, felt justified in building a theory that ignored
the aether completely. Later he brought
it back again, but with the strange proviso that it could not be treated like
an ordinary medium – like water, for instance, in which one can identify flow
as distinct from any waves it may carry:
“According to the general theory of relativity space without
ether is unthinkable; for in such space there not only would be no propagation
of light, but also no possibility of existence for standards of space and time
(measuring-rods and clocks), nor therefore any space-time intervals in the
physical sense. But this ether may not be thought of as endowed with the
quality characteristic of ponderable media, as consisting of parts which may be
tracked through time. The idea of motion may not be applied to it.” Albert Einstein,
1920[4].
When
evidence began to emerge from the experiments such as those of Sagnac[5]
and Dayton Miller[6] that it
might, after all, be possible to detect the motion of the aether, he chose
either to ignore it or to dismiss it as experimental error[7]. I see no scientific justification for
Einstein’s attitude, despite the fact that in a sense he was right: many
interactions depend almost entirely on the waves in the aether and are
insensitive to its motion.
Additionally, recent detailed observations of gravitational and tidal
effects suggest that (as was tentatively put forward at the time) these could
have played at least a part in Miller’s results. The latter should not have been simply swept under the carpet,
though. Other scientists, when he announced
his main findings, agreed that there was need for further investigation. Lorentz himself declared that, whatever the
cause, the results could not be explained by his theory alone[8].
Be
that as it may, experiments seem to have shown that the aether wind relative to
the Earth is small, and this indicates,
to my mind, that the aether must move with the Earth. It is either completely dragged with it in its motion around the
Sun or almost so[9]. Possibly it does not revolve daily with the
Earth, but the experimental evidence here is open to more than one
interpretation.
A major reason, though, for assuming a fluid aether is
simply that without it the whole PWA concept, together with the possibility of
reaching a deeper understanding of the mechanism behind forces, fails. Knowledge of how the aether moves on large
scales is, fortunately, not critical to my main thesis, which is more concerned
with the way in which forces work at the subatomic and ordinary every-day
scales.
2.2 Introducing the Phi-Wave Aether
The
Phi-Wave-Aether assumption is that the universe is entirely composed of a fluid aether, pervaded by very high
frequency longitudinal “phi-waves”, these being both emitted and
received by all matter. “Phi” is a
scalar measuring the “state” of the aether and possibly, though not
necessarily, identifiable with the concept of “density”. The name was chosen because of the close
relationship between aether waves and the electric scalar potential, f, of Maxwell’s theory. The waves are not necessarily sinusoidal (see the suggested
profile in Fig. 3). They are emitted
all at the same frequency but, as with any other wave, become Doppler shifted
when there is relative motion.
I
do not try to explain what the aether really “is”, though I tend to assume that
it is a continuous substance. Even if
at some lower level it is, as in Steven Rado’s model[10], in fact composed of particles, in order to
interact these would need to be embedded in a continuous medium. The difficulties encountered in any theory
that tries to explain everything just by physical contact between particles and
the exchange of momentum seem to me to be insuperable.
The
experimental results of Fizeau, Miller and others seem to show that the aether
can quite easily change its translational motion to suit its environment. Within an evacuated tube, for instance (as
used in many of the attempts to detect aether drift), it moves almost totally
with the tube. Indeed, I now think that
fast motion of a solid body through the aether would not be possible if, for
the most part, the aether did not travel with it. At least in open space, though, the aether seems very reluctant
to change direction.
Optical
gyroscopes depend on the fact that light carries on regardless, ignoring facts
such as the daily rotation of the Earth.
Whether or not this really proves the aether does not turn, though, is a
moot point. It is possible that the
direction of light is influenced by its interaction with other phi-waves. The “fixed stars” and the whole of the rest
of the universe provide phi-waves that in themselves give a reference frame,
not always coinciding with the local aether rest frame. The phi-waves from ahead are all
blue-shifted when a body such as the Earth moves in relation to their sources,
so that the Earth’s “phi-wave frame” is not isotropic.
This
is a recurring problem in any aether theory: the experimental distinction
between the effects of aether motion and those of waves carried by the aether
is very difficult. For the time being,
we often have to leave the question open.
3. Radiation and electromagnetic energy
When
a wave source (or, more often, a group of wave sources) moves periodically,
corresponding patterns (modulations and interference patterns) will form in the
emitted phi-waves, and these patterns are what we sense as either “force
fields” or radiation, depending on the frequency and the scale of the source
motion. Whether or not the emitted
pattern has transverse components depends on the motion of the source. Which components are detected depends on
the instrument used.
An
elegant animation showing the generation of transverse waves from longitudinal
ones can be seen on Gabriel LaFrenière’s web site. He is amongst several who have discovered this idea
independently.
Fig. 1: The generation of light: The pattern is formed from the superposition of two sets of
longitudinal waves, coming from sources at top and bottom left of the
picture. The sources oscillate gently
right and left, 180° out of phase.
(A frame from LaFrenière’s animation[11], with permission.)
These
ideas about light completely supersede Maxwell’s. It is not reasonable in my view to describe light waves as
oscillating transverse electric and magnetic fields, propagating by means of a
series of induction interactions. As I
explain later, the electric vector does have some physical meaning, but the
phi-waves underlying ordinary light just flow, essentially without interaction,
carrying their associated patterns with them.
The ideas conflict, of course, even more drastically with the quantum
theory notion of light as particles.
[The invention of the photon, not the cosmological constant, was, to my
mind, Einstein’s greatest blunder! He
invented it on inadequate grounds, and it had devastating consequences for the
rational development of physics. But I
shall not dwell on this here.]
My
premise is that in general phi-waves and the light and other (“force-field”) waves
that they carry as modulations all travel in the vacuum at the same speed
relative to the aether, apart from variations as follows. Firstly, the basic speed is affected by the
general intensity of the local phi-wave oscillations. The phi-waves, when intense, can cause changes in the aether
itself, effectively increasing its refractive index and slowing the speed of
phi-waves near solid bodies. Thus
phi-waves travel slightly slower near massive bodies and possibly considerably
slower very near their sources.
Secondly, there may be some direct interaction between phi-waves,
causing additional focussing of the incoming waves onto wave sources and also
causing propagation to be slower when it is against, as opposed to with, the
dominant phi-wave direction. Thirdly,
phi-waves may be similarly retarded when flowing against others that are mostly
blue-shifted by Doppler effects.
As
the existence of the aether has been denied for the past 100-odd years, we are
very ignorant about these matters. More
experimental evidence, together with re-interpretation of existing material, is
needed. The various factors influencing
the apparent speed of light (aether wind plus the above, not to mention
possible distortions of the measuring apparatus) make the interpretations of
all experiments exceedingly difficult.
Phi-waves
carry “phi-energy”, but this is not in itself energy that we recognise. It can be thought of as the basic food-stuff
of “wave centres” (see next section) and hence of atoms. It is everywhere, taken for granted. It is only when groups of phi-waves acquire
periodic patterns on a rather larger scale that we begin to call them
energy. Matter itself is built of phi-waves,
which makes the equivalence of matter and phi-energy self-evident, though quite
whether or not this means E = mc2 is another question.
4. Wave Centres
The PWA theory assumes an infinite universe in
which (in our local region at least[12])
phi-energy is continuously recycled, random waves of highly variable amplitude
and short coherence length being converted into coherent ones by matter, which
is itself composed of aether. When the
local intensity of phi-waves happens to exceed some threshold value, the aether
changes state to become a stationary (or perhaps slowly moving) “wave centre”,
pulsating at a universal fixed high frequency.
Phi-waves propagate out from it.
In earlier versions of the PWA theory I assumed that the ease with which
solid bodies move in the vacuum indicated that, as Lorentz thought[13],
wave centres were not necessarily tied to any particular “piece of aether” but
might be continually reforming from new aether as necessary. I now think that the stability of small
particles is dependent on the aether always moving with them (see later). Either way, the centre continues pulsating
so long as sufficient incoming phi-waves supply it with “phi-energy”.
The
interaction of a wave centre with incoming phi-waves depends mainly on two
factors: the relative phase of incoming wave and wave centre and the amplitude
of the centre’s pulsations. If the
amplitude is “standard” then the centre will tend to be pushed unless it is
nearly in phase with the incoming wave.
When there is almost a phase match, the centre can move either forwards
or backwards so as to achieve an exact match.
The “in phase” positions, where there is resonance, are points of stable
equilibrium.
It
would be satisfying to be able at this point to present a mechanical model to
illustrate the above – the way in which the arrival of phi-waves at an existing
centre leads automatically to the suggested effects – but unfortunately this is
not the case. There are (see later)
some real situations that do possibly illustrate the effects, but they are not
part of every day experience.
The
general idea can, however, be understood intuitively. The way I see it is that, since wave centres “evaporate” when
starved of new phi-energy, they naturally gravitate towards positions of
resonance, where they can be relatively sure of a constant supply. This need not, incidentally, be true
resonance, with both emitter and receiver fixed and exchanging phi-waves. True, two-way, resonance is only feasible
between very close sources, since thermal and other motion means that in
general the separation of any two wave centres is constantly varying. The resonance can be, and more often is,
one-way and short-lived – simply the temporary agreement in phase of a wave
centre with incoming phi-waves. The
source of the phi-waves may be nearby or distant. The phi-waves may come primarily from one source or be the
combined waves from many. Newtons’ law
of the equality of action and reaction, incidentally, does not apply here,
since one and the same phi-wave can produce different effects on a receiver,
depending on circumstances.
When
the pulsation amplitude of a wave centre is not standard, or when there is net
motion relative to the aether, the rules are effectively slightly
different. For the moment, though, let
us consider a pair of standard wave centres, one of which is stationary with
respect to the aether.
Fig. 2: Wave centres approaching: Phi-wave peaks arrive too frequently for resonance. If one arrives at the “right” time, the next will arrive too soon and be already past before the centre has reached maximum. The centre will tend to shift towards the position of resonance, i.e. away from the phi-wave source. There will be repulsion. (Distortion of waves on entering the high-intensity central regions is not shown. There will be a degree of focussing due to the higher refractive index of the medium there.)
Fig. 3: Separating
wave centres: These will exchange “softer” and
lower-frequency phi-waves and the relative motion will slow until they are in
resonance. There will be
attraction. This may be simply a direct
effect of the phase differences between arriving wave peaks and the centre’s
pulsation, but may be partly the net
result of the pushing effect of waves from the rest of the universe. If the wave profile is non-sinusoidal, as
shown, the waves will produce strong “forces” and firm phase-locking.
The
rules for interaction of two wave centres in close proximity are quite simple,
and covered by Figs. 2 and 3. If a
neighbouring wave centre moves away, the phi-waves coming back from it will be
red-shifted, the frequency too low for resonance with a stationary wave
centre. Therefore it will be
advantageous for the latter to follow.
Likewise, if a neighbouring wave centre comes towards a stationary one
and threatens to get too close, its phi-waves will be blue shifted and at too
high a frequency for coupling. It will
be advantageous to move away. The
effects are achieved partly by a gradual adaptation to the phase of the
incoming wave, partly by the net effect of other phi-waves. [Note that this description is slightly
different from my original. At first I
assumed all interactions were either push effects or zero, with attraction
being entirely due to push from waves from the rest of the universe, in
the manner of Le Sage’s explanation of gravity[14].]
These
rules lie behind at least certain kinds of electric current, where wave centres
follow each other nose to tail. They
also account for the behaviour of electrons associated with atoms and the
structure of the atoms themselves. Wave
centres can exist for long periods most easily if they sustain each other in
neat – or maybe not so neat – groups.
They might sometimes, for instance, form tetrahedral groups, as shown in
Fig. 4, where all the pulsations are synchronised, all four centres in
resonance with each other.
Fig. 4: A small unit of “matter”: Four wave
centres are trapped into resonance with each other. The unit may or may not physically rotate. The aether may or not rotate with the wave
centres. If it does not, this imposes
restrictions on the allowable rotation rates – a basis for quantisation?
The
wave centres are effectively held in their relative positions by the
requirement to stay in resonance with each other, so the “force” between any
two is not simple attraction or repulsion.
Boscovich had a similar idea a few centuries ago[15],
now carried over into the quantum theory notion of “quantum wells” where
particles can be in equilibrium.
In
early versions of the PWA theory I suggested that the wave centres themselves
might correspond to nucleons, so that Fig. 4 would represent a whole atom. I now see this as too simplistic. The nucleons are more likely, according to
chemical and other evidence, to be “magnetic”[16],
which, in the PWA model, means that they must be formed by rotating systems,
possibly pairs of wave centres chasing each other’s tails but more likely
three-dimensional structures such as the above tetrahedron.
Somewhere
in the picture of atomic structure another analogy seems compelling: the
standing wave patterns that can be obtained on the surface of a fluid when a
vibration is applied to the container.
In a circular container, groups of stationary “wave centres” form at the
centre under certain conditions, the strongest being at the corners of a
square, in two pairs of opposite phase.
Wave centres of opposite phase can perhaps be identified with electrons
and positrons, though clearly the definition is only relative, specific to that
location.
Fig. 5: A group of four wave centres: These formed on the surface of water in the centre
of a circular container subject to vibration.
The upper and lower centres are of one phase, the left and right ones
opposite. (Part of a
video frame by Ray Tomes[17],
with permission.)
The
true composition of solid matter is probably sufficiently complex to allow for
a number of different structures and mechanisms to be involved at different
scales. The PWA theory is at an
embryonic stage here, with its own impasse: how to link the existence of
the primary pulsating wave centres, with their fixed natural separations and
non-rotating nature, to the supposedly magnetic nucleons, complete atoms,
molecules and crystals. The arrangement
of atoms in crystals suggests that these obey rules not unlike those of
individual wave centres, in that equilibrium occurs at fixed separations.
Returning
to the matter of the spin of nucleons, and assuming provisionally that each is
a tetrahedron of wave centres, the question arises as to whether the constituents
really circle or whether there are merely waves of phase state (as in a
“Mexican wave” at a football match).
Some may spin, others not. In
any event, it seems that sufficient phi-waves escape the nucleus to create
(moving or stationary) interference patterns around it.
If
(again provisionally) we identify electrons with wave centres, they will be
happy to occupy antinodes of such patterns.
Thus electrons attached to atoms may occupy one of the possible antinode
positions, whilst in the phi-wave-rich environment in a metal, say, they may
form a loose cloud. When in “free”
states, though, distant from nuclei, there are two other possibilities: they
may cling together in groups or they may disintegrate and travel as pure,
concentrated, phi-waves, reforming as electrons only when they interact later
with “solid matter”, i.e. with other compact groups of wave centres. This, I suspect, is what happens in
experiments such as Tonomura’s of 1989[18],
demonstrating electron interference when only a single electron at a time is
supposed to be present in the apparatus.
Perhaps in reality there are none.
Before
moving on the to discuss how the every-day forces of classical physics work,
let us look at some experimental facts that may support the PWA basic idea.
5. Experimental confirmation?
5.1 Atoms in
optical traps
Now
atoms consist of many wave centres, and the light used in optical traps is on a
relatively large scale, but it seems that atoms controlled by laser light obey
much the same rules as wave centres and phi-waves. Perhaps, even, the behaviour of wave centres is the underlying
cause of the macroscopic effects? My
view is that the behaviour of the atom is determined by that of its constituent
wave-centres but not quite “deterministically”. Myriad pushes and pulls act on individual centres and the whole
atom is seen to move, but this is an average effect, achieved after a
considerable amount of feedback and mutual adjustment. Thus the observed behaviour of trapped atoms
is an analogy rather than an exact portrayal of the behaviour of a wave centre,
but it may be helpful.
The
following passage is taken from the December 2000 edition of Physics World[19]:
5.2 Light Force
Radiation pressure is probably
the best known of the forces that light can exert on an atom. In this case [coherent coupling of a single
atom and single photon in a cavity], an atom absorbs resonant light and
receives a momentum kick in the direction of the laser beam. Although the atom’s momentum changes again
when it spontaneously emits a photon, this second kick is in a completely
random direction and therefore averages to zero after many absorption-emission
cycles.
Induced transitions, on the other hand, lead to a
so-called dipole force. This force can
be understood classically by noting that the electric field of the driving
laser induces a mechanical oscillation of the atom’s electron. The oscillating dipole moment that is
produced experiences a force in a light field with an intensity gradient, such as
a standing wave.
The sign of this force depends on the “detuning” of the
laser with respect to the atomic-transition frequency. For example, when the laser frequency is
lower than the atomic frequency, the induced atomic dipole oscillates in phase
with the driving laser field, and the atom is attracted towards regions of high
intensity just like a small piece of paper is attracted towards an electrically
charged object. Hence, the dipole force
can trap particles in the focal region of a “red-tuned” laser beam. For a “blue-tuned” laser (i.e. when the
laser frequency is higher than the atomic-transition frequency), the dipole
oscillates out of phase with respect to the laser, so the atom is repelled from
the high-intensity regions.
The
passage may contain small elements of pure fiction (the mechanism might work
equally well assuming only pulsating sources and longitudinal waves, without
any oscillating dipoles), yet it brings out a few interesting points. The final paragraph is the most relevant. It seems to make a nonsense of the idea of
“radiation pressure”, since this can be either push or pull, but the main point
for me is that here we have a case in which motion is caused by
“detuning”, i.e. by whether the waves are blue or red shifted with respect to
some natural frequency. There is a
tendency of motion to be such as to counteract the detuning. If the incoming wave is “too red”, the atom
moves towards it so that the Doppler shift “corrects” it in the blue direction;
if it is “too blue”, it moves away.
5.3
“Energy-sucking antennae”
Regarding
the focussing of incoming phi-waves onto wave centres, observations of the
behaviour of radio waves near antennae may be relevant. Radio waves appear to be focussed onto
antennae, especially if the latter are already emitting at the same frequency,
in which case they amplify the signal.
Perhaps they are in fact focussed onto any solid body. It seems possible that focussing is not just
a matter of general increase of refractive index as the body is neared but of
active interaction between the (spherical) patterns of phi-waves going out and
the incoming waves.
Bill Beaty has done some
interesting investigations into such matters[20],
though he does not quite support my hypothesis. As he says, “Classical theory shows that radio waves are focused
onto antennae, but only because the latter are already emitting (scattering) at
the same frequency, resulting in amplification of the energy which a tiny
antenna could otherwise absorb”[21].
5.4
The Mössbauer effect
In
the “Mössbauer effect”, gamma radiation directed onto a crystal at very low
temperatures produces resonance, with the emitted light being at the same
frequency as the absorbed light. This
contrasts with the more usual case, in which the target is a gas and the source
frequency has to be increased slightly, for instance by fast motion and Doppler
shift, before resonance is achieved.
The argument is that in the usual case the energy input is required to
produce a recoil in the atom as well as oscillations. In the Mössbauer case, in the accepted explanation, recourse has
to be made to quantum theoretical assumptions about the probabilities of
neighbouring molecules acquiring a vibration[22].
I
am doubtful about the interpretations of all these “resonance fluorescence”
experiments, since in the PWA theory it is not assumed that the energy or
radiation is always hn , so the arithmetic and energy-balance arguments of
quantum theory do not apply. There may,
in the usual case, be an explanation in terms of the ordinary theory of forced
oscillations and, especially in the case of a gas target, Doppler shifts – I am
no expert in this. However, the special
case in which input and output frequencies are identical (which Mössbauer
himself termed the “recoilless” case),
might well be an illustration of the lack of either push or pull effects
of the input when the receiver is able to get exactly in phase. With a wave model it is easy to explain the
strength of the resonance, since a given incoming wave can stimulate many atoms
at once, and the atoms may well stimulate each other in a chain reaction.
6. Macroscopic Forces
6.1 Parallel
currents
If
wave centres of standard amplitude are moving in parallel and are not already
close, they will tend to move closer, to relative positions in which they
exchange stronger phi-waves and hence (if they can remain in phase with each
other’s waves for significant periods) achieve greater stability. This may sometimes be by a process of “evaporating”
at one spot and reforming at the next favourable spot, one wavelength nearer to
the other, sometimes by a more gradual adaptation. The force between wires with parallel currents, for instance, is
caused by the wave centres in each tending to draw closer to those of the other
when both currents are in the same direction.
Due to the Doppler shifts of the phi-waves, they have more chance of
resonating with electrons moving in the same general direction than with
stationary ones in the rest of the environment.
The
wires will carry on drawing closer until distances of a few wavelengths are
reached, when closer proximity becomes difficult unless the two currents can
get completely in phase, which is most unlikely to be the case. When the currents are in opposite
directions, Doppler shifts have an adverse effect and there will be repulsion.
6.2 Magnetism
Fig. 5: Magnetism: A and B are wave centres, both
constrained to move in circles.
Phi-wave interactions (including those with the rest of the universe)
will nudge them so that their paths are, if possible, parallel. If the initial paths are constrained to be
opposite, there will be repulsion since resonance is impossible.
The
force between two magnets placed end to end can be viewed as a special case, since
a magnet contains circling currents.
Currents in two magnets attract each other if both are circling in the
same sense and repel if opposite (see Fig. 5).
Other magnetic phenomena are a little more difficult to explain. Account needs to be taken of the phases of
individual wave centres and the fact that when, as happens in a “magnetised”
body, many atoms are “spin-aligned”, the phases of wave centres within each
spin domain are likely to be related.
It is interference patterns between various waves, combined with
interactions between pairs of iron filings in which magnetism has been induced,
that lead to the appearance of “lines of force” when the filings are slightly
shaken.
This
covers the basic mechanism of magnetism.
Even the induction of magnetism around a current-carrying wire can be
seen as yet another variant on the basic phenomenon of currents aligning
themselves wherever possible so as to be parallel. Here the magnet is assumed to contain small circling currents
that align themselves so that the part of the current nearest to the wire is
parallel to that in the wire.
6.3
Electrostatics
Electrostatic
forces are a little more difficult to understand. The original inspiration for phi-waves was as an explanation for
the Coulomb force, which was to be determined by the gradient of their
amplitude, but how can we explain in terms of wave centres why positive charges
should move one way and negative the other?
What is a “positive charge”?
Indeed, what is a negative one?
The
wave centres discussed so far have been “standard” ones, effectively neutral,
and assumed provisionally to be identifiable with electrons. There seem to be two options here: either
negative charge is associated with high levels of phi-oscillation (whether due
to increased number of wave centres per unit volume or to increased pulsation
amplitudes[23]) or with
low. After many years of assuming the
former, I now favour the latter.
Electrons that are not in tight clusters are (within reason) always
“hungry” for as much “phi-energy” as
they can get.
One
factor influencing this choice is that I model atomic nuclei as close groups of
wave centres, and these will emit high-intensity phi-waves, though with strong
interference patterns. Nuclei are
conventionally taken to be positively charged, so it can reasonably be assumed
that the high phi-intensity output is attractive to free wave centres, i.e. to
electrons. When a nucleus has its full
complement of electrons it becomes electrostatically neutral, which poses
somewhat of a problem. Perhaps the
outer electrons are so placed that they absorb effectively all the surplus
phi-energy from the nucleus and re-radiate it as spherical waves. Because these outer electrons are relatively
far apart, there are no regions where there is strong constructive interference
between their phi-emissions. They have
effectively plugged the phi-energy leaks. [ I realise this is rather
far-fetched. Perhaps it would be wiser
to say that this is one of the areas not yet covered by the theory.]
So
far we have assumed that incoming phi-waves push wave centres unless
they are almost in phase. It is now
time to clarify what we mean by “almost”.
Could it be that when the pulsation amplitude is very high, the wave
centre has to be very nearly exactly in phase if it is to avoid being pushed,
whilst if the pulsations are below par it is more adaptable, moving more
readily either forward or backward so as the achieve resonance? This would mean that a “negative” (below-par)
centre would more often move towards a phi-wave source than a “standard” one
would.
Let
us reconsider what is happening to make a wave centre move. The centre, after all, only really exists as
such for part of its cycle, when the phi value is high. Phi then decreases to zero and the centre
re-forms, possibly in a slightly different position. It has not really been pushed or pulled at all, just regenerated
in a new place. There is thus no reason
why there should not be an actual pulling effect, even if the phases are not
approximately matched. By re-forming a
little nearer to the dominant phi-wave source (which presumably is
relatively “positively charged”, having
strong pulsations), a weakly pulsating centre will become stronger. It can either adjust its position slightly
or move by a complete wavelength.
Similarly, a strongly-pulsating wave centre may be unstable unless it
reforms further away from another source of strong phi-waves. [It must at all costs avoid receiving more
than some maximum phi, but this should almost always be possible, since changes
in incoming phi-intensity will almost always be gradual.]
Thus
we have a reasonable model for both electrostatic attraction and
repulsion. My earlier idea remains a
possibility: that there are only push forces and the difference between
positively and negatively charged bodies is due to the fact that the wave
centres in negatively charged ones are more free to move to vacant sites and
hence more often able to get in phase with incoming waves.
6.4 Gravity
The
force of gravity is also carried by phi-waves, and is perhaps best treated as
the result of a net imbalance between repulsive and attractive magnetic and
electrostatic forces. In my original
formulation of the PWA theory I placed great emphasis on the fact that the coherence
lengths of phi-waves from very distant objects would necessarily be much
shorter than those from nearby ones, and tried to account for gravity as an
entirely as a pushing force, assuming a Le Sage type shadow effect. Short wave trains almost always push wave
centres since there is no time to establish resonance, whilst longer wave
trains more often couple with them and do not push.
I
still think coherence properties play an important part, but now think that it
is more likely that there is a positive attractive force as well. The attraction can be thought of as mainly
electrostatic, due to the fact that wave centres near the surface of a body
will tend to be slightly starved of phi-energy, receiving it strongly only from
within the body. External massive
bodies will be better sources of phi-energy the nearer they are. Even if in fact neutral, other things being
equal, a near body is a better source than a more distant one since its
phi-waves will be stronger and of longer coherence length.
6.5 “Optical spanners”
For
a few years now it has been possible to manipulate small objects, for example
on microscope slides, using lasers. A
recent development allows the laser to cause turning, as well as lateral motion[24]. A beam is produced in which ordinary
circular polarisation is exaggerated artificially, in one way or another
adjusting the phases of different parts of the cross-section to give a
larger-scale circular pattern to the phase differences.
Now
the production of a transverse force is not easy to explain using wave
theories, but it can be done. The force
involved is partly what I might term the “lemon pip effect”, whereby the pip is
squeezed and shoots off sideways, but partly, perhaps, an effect due to the
ability of wave centres to track incoming phi-waves with which they are in
resonance. The force could be (and
doubtless usually is) just the transverse electric potential gradient E
that classical radiation theory has assumed since Maxwell’s time, but in
reality the field in this direction is quite different from the radial E field
produced by a charged body. It is
composed of waves that are propagating orthogonally to the gradient, yet a
pattern of changing intensity and phase is moving in the assumed direction of E.
Perhaps
this kind of transverse force deserves a new name? It is not quite an electrostatic one, not quite an ordinary
magnetic one. The force illustrated by
macroscopic optical spanners is presumably of the same kind as the turning
force already known to be associated with circularly polarised radiation[25],
but very much stronger.
7. Motion in the aether
Evidence
regarding the motion of the aether is currently confusing, with a century of
denial hindering progress in interpreting experiments. The facts, as far as I can tell, seem to
show that the aether moves readily with solid bodies insofar as it shares their
translatory motion, but whether or in what circumstances it changes direction
is far from clear. Miller’s
observations, which he took as evidence of a small aether wind due mainly to
the motion of the Solar System relative to a wider aether frame, might have
been, at least in part, evidence of the direction of light being influenced by
the “phi-wave frame” determined by the fixed stars and the rest of
matter in the universe. This is
consistent with the basic facts of a Foucault pendulum, and with observed “sighting deviations” – the fact that when
you view an object through a telescope its apparent position shows periodic
daily variations[26].
Lack
of major aether motion relative to the Earth is also evident from lunar ranging
experiments, in which light reflected off a suitably orientated mirror on the
Moon returned always sufficiently close to its point of origin to be detected[27]. The aether must be moving with both Earth
and Moon around the Sun. The lunar
ranging apparatus was not sufficiently sensitive to have shown whether or not
the aether revolves daily with the Earth.
7.1 Linear motion
The
PWA theory shows that motion of a solid body relative to the aether at any
appreciable speed will destroy its internal phase links. Mere
“length contraction” and/or “time dilation” does not alter the fact that
two wave centres that would, in a stationary aether, have synchronised phases,
will not be able to continue to be phase linked unless the leader has a
suitable phase delay relative to the follower.
To
see why this is so, consider two linked wave centres, A and B, at rest in the
aether and one wavelength apart. They
will be emitting wave peaks simultaneously.
Now assume an aether wind in the direction B to A. This will stretch out the phi-waves from B
so that peaks pass A before A is ready for them. To accommodate B’s waves, A would need to move further away. But, assuming for the moment that it does
not, and continues blindly emitting in synchrony with B, A’s waves travel
slower against the aether wind and the peaks arrive at B too late. B would need to move nearer to A to
catch them efficiently. In other
words, if A and B persist in producing synchronised pulses they will no longer
be in resonance unless they both move in the direction of the aether wind. If, on the other hand, they alter their
phases so that B reaches maximum phi a fraction after A, all can continue very
nearly as smoothly as before, a Lorentz contraction being sufficient to average
out the tiny differences.
The
situation is slightly more flexible if we consider larger scales, where the
distance between wave centres is several wavelengths. There will be certain separations and certain speeds relative to
the aether such that there are n complete wavelengths between them in
one direction, n+1, say, in the other, with no need for any length
contraction.
An
interesting consequence of the “phase adjustment” idea for linearly-moving
systems might be the production of radio waves associated with the rings of
Jupiter. These, as I understand it,
have slight linear polarisation. The
PWA theory would predict that this would be parallel to the direction of
rotation of the rings. The radio waves
would be caused by waves of phase relationship amongst the particles of the
rings, the waves being a natural
consequence of motion relative to an aether that is not revolving with
them.
7.2 Circular
motion
I
have so far dealt only with effectively linear motion, and wave centres very
often seem to move in circles. Lorentz,
in his 1904 “relativity” paper[28],
did not, I think, really solve the problem.
In view of the fact that he assumed a static aether and worked only from
Maxwell’s equations, without allowing for the wave nature of the force fields,
I fear his arguments are almost entirely irrelevant. I think he underestimated the problems associated with circular
motion on the scales at which the wave nature of matter comes into play, and
hence the difficulty of atoms even remaining in existence unless the aether
moves with them.
The
easiest assumption is that the aether does in general move with solid
bodies, and revolves with atoms when they spin. The latter is not the only possibility, though. Certain velocities relative to the aether
give rise (as hinted in the caption to Fig. 4) to stable situations, and
perhaps Nature sometimes chooses these, the aether staying still while the constituents
of the atom revolve, but alternatively one can question whether atoms do really
spin at all.
Perhaps
actual rotation of wave centres is rare, apparent rotation more often being
achieved by rotating “phase waves”.
These, however, would in general give only one-way linkages, but perhaps
that is enough to keep the wave centres supplied with their phi-energy. There would still, for stability, need to
be a fixed whole number of wavelengths around the circumference of the circle,
so that all wave centres could be in phase with waves from one neighbour. [Due to our lack of knowledge about the way
in which refractive index behaves near atomic nuclei, this does not tell us
much about the absolute size of the circuit.]
8. Aether boundaries
If
the aether moves freely with moving bodies, the question arises as to what
happens when two aether regions meet.
Assume for the sake of argument we have a body and accompanying region
of aether moving into a static region.
My current hypothesis is that the aether ahead of the body is
compressed, which increases the phi-wave oscillation intensity, making the
production of new wave centres likely and thus nullifying the excess
pressure. The aether behind, on the
other hand, is rarefied. The phi-waves
in it are spread out and weaker than normal.
Wave centres at the rear of the body are likely to be starved of
phi-energy and evaporate.
In
other words, the body acquires a “charge” of some kind in front, an opposite
one to the rear. If it is a conductor,
a current should appear from “nowhere”
and flow through it, though which way it would flow is not obvious. Probably surplus wave centres from the front
would migrate to the rear.
9. The PWA and Einstein
The aether concept can readily explain several
phenomena currently covered by Einstein’s theories. It has no use for their more mathematical aspects, rejecting the
idea that it is reasonable to devise “covariant” laws of physics, the same in
all frames of reference. I consider
here just a few phenomena that I re-interpret.
1. Gravitational bending of light is a
consequence of change in the refractive index of the aether with change in
phi-wave intensity, though much of the observed bending may be due to the fact
that there is no a true vacuum in “space” and ordinary gas density increases
near massive bodies[29].
2. The “photon”, as has been mentioned, does
not exist, being completely replaced by the phi-wave-modulation model. Einstein invented it on the basis of:
(a) Planck’s black body radiation formula, and
(b) the photoelectric effect, using
(c) Compton scattering as confirmation.
Planck’s formula, though, was really just
an empirical one that he had fitted and tried to interpret, making some
implausible assumptions about heat and matter. Planck himself objected to the idea of the photon[30]. The actual experiments supposed to confirm
Einstein’s photoelectric theory did not involve single photons or electrons and
Millikan, the experimenter who did the definitive versions, described
Einstein’s interpretation as “reckless”[31]. Compton scattering was interpreted in terms
of photons and electrons only, as far as I can discover, because, after
Einstein’s acclamation by the media regarding the gravitational bending of
light, such ideas were in vogue. Schrödinger and others worked on alternative,
wave, explanations[32]. The people who are now regarded as the
Founding Fathers of quantum theory resisted the photon idea on the basis of the
facts – as true now as they were then – that it cannot explain interference
effects and has no real place for the concept of frequency. I could go on! The photon idea has led to some absurd interpretations of a great
number of experiments, and to the inability of modern theorists to make any mental
distinction between “energy” and “frequency”.
3. Equivalence of mass and energy: Clearly, since matter is made of wave
centres, there is a close relationship between matter and phi-energy. Whether there is a fixed relationship with
“useful” energy, though, is not so certain.
It seems to me doubtful whether the actual E=mc2
formula is true.
4. Relativistic mass increase: Since all forces are due to waves that
travel at speed c, push ones will become less and less effective as the body
being acted upon moves faster and faster away.
Pull ones, on the other hand, are likely to convert to push when Doppler
effects destroy resonance. At the same
time, aether resistance (the effect mainly of the blue Doppler shift of
incoming phi-waves from ahead) will increase.
Altogether there will be an apparent increase in the mass, though not necessarily
according to the accepted formula.
A limiting speed is likely to be reached well before
the body achieves the speed of light.
Gravity, for instance, will not cause a body to accelerate
indefinitely. The fast-moving body will
not necessarily disintegrate at great speeds. Instead, the aether ahead of it may become compressed and
generate new wave centres. Within, the
aether may be travelling with the body, which will, as mentioned earlier,
become electrically polarised.
10. Related theories
The
PWA theory was developed completely independently of other similar theories,
but has now been found to have elements in common with a great number. Many people have noted the similarity with
Stochastic Electrodynamics (SED)[33],
though in point of fact the mathematical approach, together with denial of an
aether and various other features, represent important differences. Milo Wolff’s “Wave Structure of Matter”
theory is perhaps more closely related, though in its initial formulation, as
set out in his book[34],
it contains some outrageously implausible assumptions, based sometimes on
quantum-theoretical ones, sometimes on acceptance of false interpretations of
experiments. The theory is currently
being modified in discussions on the internet[35].