Replies

Truly, light can be perceived as an illusion, an annoyance – or conversely, as real - and moreover, the primary medium of reality whether mass, geometry, life or information.

In meditating on the latter speculation, we Christians may keep in mind that God is Light - and "let there be light" was His first command. Metaphor versus reality.

So, getting back to the speculations I’ve raised about light, life, mass, information and relativity, here is an article with a similar speculation which may help explicate some of the issues.

The author is retired from Cornell, his background, education and work history is in biology but his interest is cosmology, physics, metaphysics et al – so all of this should be seen as speculation (not peer-reviewed).

Or, if you want to "cut to the chase" of his speculation, you could take a peek at this gif chart: The Tetrahedron Model of Energy and Conservation Law

Narrative summary:

Extending Einstein's Equivalence Principle: Light "Transformed to Rest" (John A. Gowan, 3/2006)

Einstein's "Equivalence Principle"

"Big G" is the universal gravitational constant, familiar to us through Newton's famous formula for the gravitational force acting between two bodies: F = GMm/rr, where Mm is the mass of the respective bodies, and r is the distance between their centers. G is a never-varying constant or "gauge" of force.

"Little g" is the local intensity of the gravitational field; it measures the force or "weight" we feel standing on Earth's surface. "Little g" is much less on the surface of the Moon, but "big G" is the same everywhere. Little g is also equivalent to the inertial "g" forces of acceleration experienced in sudden starts, stops, and sharp turns (Einstein's "Principle of Equivalence" of gravitational and accelerated reference frames). The equivalence holds because as we stand on the surface of the earth, space accelerates through us toward Earth's center, while in the reciprocal situation (through the appropriate application of energy), we accelerate through space (in a "rocket ship", for example). "g" forces vanish in "free fall" (or orbit) because we become co-movers with the field. Similarly, acceleration forces vanish when we "turn off the engines" and drift freely in space with the metric's inertial field. An earlier version of the equivalence principle, attributed to Newton, noted only the unexplained correspondence between inertial mass and gravitational weight. It is readily seen that Einstein's equivalence principle includes and explains its predecessor.

Extension of the Equivalence Principle:

The extension of the equivalence principle does not directly involve gravitation, but the energetic equivalence of free and bound energy, also discovered by Einstein. This equivalence allows us to conceive of matter as an (asymmetric) form of light's energy transformed to rest, a notion which triggers Noether's theorem regarding the conservation of the symmetry attributes of free energy. The charges of matter are therefore seen as various conserved symmetry (and entropy) debts of light. Reversing the transformation by converting bound to free energy (as in the stars and Hawking's "quantum radiance" of black holes) pays (vanishes) all the symmetry (and entropy) debts of matter.

The Three Levels of the Equivalence Principle:

A) (Newton) Mechanical - The equivalence of inertial mass and gravitational weight

1) Inertial mass and gravitational weight are equivalent, so inertial mass can be measured by weighing objects against a standard in a gravitational field. The cause of this equivalence is unknown. The equivalence is invoked to explain why all things fall with the same acceleration in a gravitational field. (The inertial resistance to motion offered by any object's "mass" exactly counterbalances the attractive force of gravitation due to that object's "weight" - rendering all differences in weight irrelevant to the action of gravity.)

B) (Einstein) Geometric - The equivalence of the forces of gravitation and acceleration

1) The forces of gravitation and acceleration are equivalent, and "free fall", orbital motion, and "coasting" cause both to vanish: we deduce from this:

2) the force of gravity is actually the convergent, accelerated motion of spacetime, explaining the equivalence of gravitational weight and inertial mass;

3) Free fall, orbit, (or "coasting") is the condition of co-moving with the metric field, whether accelerated or not;

4) Since all falling, orbiting, (or "coasting") objects are co-movers with the metric field of spacetime, the fact that all objects fall with the same acceleration in a gravitational field becomes obvious. However, the reason why gravity accelerates spacetime (what is the conservation role of this force? - or equivalently: why must this force exist?) remains unknown.

C) (Einstein-Noether) Symmetric - The equivalence of free and bound energy: E = hv (Planck); E = mcc (Einstein); hv = mcc (DeBroglie); - The conservation of the symmetry of free energy: the symmetry as well as the raw energy of light must be conserved (Noether). Charge conservation, gravitation, and inertial force = symmetry conservation (in particles and the spacetime metric).

1) Free and bound energy are energetically equivalent: matter is created from light in the Big Bang; conversely, light is created from matter in stars and via Hawking's "quantum radiance" of black holes. Matter is an (asymmetric) form of light's energy transformed to rest.

2) The charges of matter are the symmetry/entropy debts of the light (free energy) which created matter. Converting matter back to light pays all symmetry/entropy debts.

3) Noether's theorem - the conservation of symmetry - is exampled by the forces of charge conservation, inertia, and the primordial form of entropy (the intrinsic dimensional motion of light as gauged by "velocity c"). The charges of matter are the symmetry debts of light. The entropy drive (intrinsic dimensional motion) and symmetry gauge of light are linked, common attributes of "velocity c", and therefore both are conserved by Noether's symmetry theorem. Charges produce forces which pay the symmetry/entropy debts they hold by returning the asymmetric bound energy system to its original symmetric free energy state (light). Time is an entropy and symmetry debt (charge) of light's broken non-local symmetric energy state which produces gravitation as a restorative or conservation force. All forms of energy originate as, and eventually return to, light. (See: "The Tetrahedron Model of Energy and Conservation Law".)

Explaining the Extension of the Equivalence Principle

We extend the "Equivalence Principle" in a new way (only indirectly involving gravitation) which embraces both free and bound energy, a necessity for any unification theory. The basis for this extension is again due to Einstein, through his most famous equation, E = mcc, establishing the energetic equivalence between free and bound energy. DeBroglie used Planck's equation for the energy content of light to make the equivalence of free and bound energy even more explicit: hv = mcc (where h = Planck's constant and v = the frequency of light). The next crucial step in this logical progression is provided by Noether's theorem, which states that not only the raw energy, but also the symmetry of light must be conserved if free energy is converted to bound form (mass-matter-momentum). To this, we add our own observation: the entropy drive of light (light's intrinsic motion) must also be conserved - but because both the symmetry gauge and the entropy drive of light are linked through "velocity c", the conservation of light's entropy (in transformations between free and bound energy forms) becomes an extension of Noether's symmetry conservation theorem. The entropy drive of free energy, the intrinsic motion of light as gauged by "velocity c", is transformed/conserved as the entropy drive of bound energy, the intrinsic motion of time, as gauged by "velocity T". The transformation is accomplished either quantum mechanically as a simple switch from implicit to explicit time, or gravitationally by the annihilation of space and the extraction of a temporal residue. (See also: "The Conversion of Space to Time" and "The Double Conservation Role of Gravitation".)

Einstein realized that the gravitational field could be "transformed to rest" in free fall - the basis of his principle of the equivalence of gravity and acceleration. Such a transformation is impossible, however, for the intrinsic motion of light - light cannot be transformed to rest because matter cannot travel at light speed. Leaving aside (for now) the possible exception of the black hole, we recognize two other "exceptions" to this rule: the creation of matter from light in the "Big Bang", and the absorption of light by the electron shell of an atom.

It is possible to think of matter itself as light transformed to rest in an asymmetric particle form, since matter is simply one-half of a particle-antiparticle pair, and such pairs are a normal material expression of light's energy (similarly, matter's entropy drive, one-way time, is 1/2 of a normal two-way spatial dimension). However, because the creation process is necessarily asymmetric (to escape an otherwise inevitable matter-antimatter annihilation), Noether's theorem comes into play requiring the lost symmetry of light to be conserved. The raw energy of light is conserved as the mass and momentum of particles. The conserved symmetries appear as the charges (and spin) of matter and as the inertial and gravitational forces of the metric. Noether's theorem is enforced through the well-known principles of charge (and spin) conservation, inertia and gravity. The spatial entropy or intrinsic motion of light is conserved by the gravitational conversion of space to time, producing matter's temporal entropy drive, the intrinsic motion of matter's time dimension. Time and gravitation therefore represent light's entropy drive (the intrinsic motion of light, gauged by "velocity c") conserved as matter's entropy drive (the intrinsic motion of time, gauged by "velocity T").

The rest of the article addresses the speculation wrt the absorption of a photon by the electron shell of an atom and time.

Any hoot, more food for thought…