SPEED OF GRAVITY

The question of the speed of gravity and Relativity has recently been raised by concerned scientists and others who have also wanted to know what our up-dated research indicates. In answer to these questions, the following assessment is provided.

Albert Einstein developed his theory of Relativity using two Postulates, both of which have proven to be incorrect. The Postulate of importance here is the invariance of the speed of light in a vacuum. Einstein developed his geometric theory of gravity after that Postulate was set in place. As a result, his theory of gravity requires that all gravitational interactions are propagated at the speed of light. This introduces a huge problem in our solar system to start with, and elsewhere in the universe as well. The problem is that, in our solar system, the action of gravity appears to be essentially instantaneous, rather than at the speed of light.

The problem may be seen by the fact that it takes light just over 8 minutes to travel from the sun to the earth. If the gravitational pull from the sun takes 8 minutes to get to the earth, then the earth should be responding to where the sun was 8 minutes ago as seen from our location. If that was indeed true, then there would be a gravitational torque on the earth’s orbit causing the orbit to spiral into the sun. Obviously, this has not happened, and a number of scientists have analyzed the situation and come up with different theories of gravity to try and accommodate Einstein’s lightspeed requirement. One of these scientists was the late Dr. Thomas Van Flandern of the US Naval Observatory in Washington. His analysis revealed that for gravitational effects to be giving the results we observe in space, then the speed of gravity must be much higher than the current speed of light. The upper limit that Van Flandern determined was likely was obtained from the orbital characteristics of a star circling a “black-hole.” That velocity was about 2 x 10¹⁰ the current speed of light. T. Van Flandern, J-P Vigier “Experimental Repeal of the Speed Limit for Gravitational, Electrodynamic, and Quantum Field Interactions,” Foundations of Physics, 32(7), pp.1-38, July 2002. Also T. Van Flandern, “Gravity,” in Pushing Gravity, M. R. Edwards, Ed., Apeiron, Montreal, 2002, pp. 93-122. 

Since the two postulates on which Einstein based his theory have been proven false it might be thought that all his predictions would be proven incorrect. This has not turned out to be the case because the effects of the ZPE have been shown to have the same results as Einstein's relativity did, but coming at it from an entirely different perspective. One of the papers involved in that discussion was my peer-reviewed article published in 2012 in the National Philosophy Alliance Conference Proceedings and can be found here: https://www.barrysetterfield.org/ZPE_and_relativity/ZPE_and_Relativity.html

The restrictive postulate which concerns us here is the speed of light. Einstein claimed that nothing could travel faster than lightspeed. However, determining exactly what that speed is needs some digging. Einstein assumed it was the current speed of light in a vacuum. However, the understanding of lightspeed has changed since Einstein's publications. The understanding of the action of the ZPE opens a new scenario. We now understand that the ZPE waves of energy crest and peak like waves on the ocean; and just as ocean waves form whitecaps and foam, which soon disappear, so, too do the ZPE waves form virtual particle pairs which appear and disappear.

The important point for our discussion is that light photons in transit interact with these virtual particle pairs, and this interaction slows them down. In 2013, Marcel Urban, the Research Director for the University of Paris demonstrated in a key article (in the European Physical Journal D on January 16th 2013) that the interactions of photons with the virtual particle pairs of the vacuum was the determining factor in lightspeed. In other words, knowing the number of virtual particle pairs and the interaction time, the present speed of light could be established. He showed that all photons of all wavelengths are uniformly affected. The conclusion is that when there are fewer Virtual Particle Pairs (VPP), lightspeed was higher and when there were more VPP's, then lightspeed was lower because of the interaction times of photons with VPP’s..

The number of VPP’s depend on the strength of the ZPE. In turn, the strength of the ZPE built up as the universe expanded, so VPP's also built up and lightspeed slowed down. In other words, without the VPP's, the speed of light would be very much higher as there would be fewer photon interactions. The picture that emerges is that, between interactions with the VPP’s, photons always travel at the same extremely high speed as they had originally. If we now propose that the speed of gravity is not subjected to the problems that light photons have with VPP's, but is unaffected by them, then as the number of VPP's built up and light photons were delayed in their travel, the gravitational interaction speed was not. This would indicate that, since the ZPE has built up by a factor of 3.13 x 10⁹ lightspeed was initially higher by a similar factor at the inception of the cosmos. This would indicate that the speed of gravity then, being the same as the speed of gravity now, was also about 3.13 x 10⁹ higher at least. This figure depends on the square-root of the Compton frequency of jiggle of subatomic particles; that is the square-root of (1.23 x 10²⁰) which is 1.1 x 10¹⁰.  For lightspeed, the VPP's require a factor to be introduced for their configuration. But, for gravitational interaction speed, that may not be necessary. As a result, the initial and continuing speed of gravity would be of the order of 1.1 x 10¹⁰ faster than lightspeed today. This is in accord with Van Flandern's calculations from stellar orbits around black-holes etc.

The conclusion may well be that, whatever it is that transmits the force of gravity through space, it does not interact with the VPP’s of the vacuum. This leads to two possible scenarios.

In scenario 1, while photons are simply bundles of electromagnetic energy, it might be considered that gravitational interactions are transmitted by bundles of gravitational energy. These gravitational bundles might not interact with the vacuum VPP’s because of their extremely small size. For this reason some consider these ”gravitons” to approximate to the Planck Length in size. This is the minimum size the fabric of space allows without the object being absorbed into the ‘gaps’ in the weave of the fabric. While gravitons are scientifically fashionable, their whole basis is speculative and unproven. Some theories require them and to some scientific minds that confirms they must exist.

Scenario 2 has a different approach which comes from the VPP’s themselves. The VPP’s are the reason why the speed of light changes with changing ZPE strength. However, between VPP interactions, the light photons travel at the same speed as they had shortly after the inception of the cosmos. This is the true upper limit velocity in the vacuum. Since the movement of light photons between VPP interactions is an electromagnetic phenomenon, then the movement of the electrically charged VPP’s in the vacuum is also an electromagnetic phenomenon. It is important to note that there is nothing to inhibit the motion of the VPP’s themselves. They must always move at the upper limit velocity for the cosmos which seems to be 1.1 x 10¹⁰ times the speed of light now.

With that fact in mind, we note that all sub-atomic particles like electrons, protons or neutrons (which may be considered to be an electron and proton together – or made up of quarks), all carry an intrinsic charge. The mere presence of the charge on these particles polarizes the vacuum around them. Thus, an electron becomes surrounded by a layer of positively charged virtual particles which in turn is surrounded by a layer of negatively charged virtual particles, and so on out into the vacuum. This vacuum polarization acts to attract other virtual particles which may be nearby. The sign of the charge initially attracted does not matter; it only affects the phase of the interactions. If the virtual particle-pair is considered to be a single entity, then that pair has a positive end and a negative end. Thus one end of the single particle-pair entity will be attracted to the charge of opposite sign. So, however this is envisaged, there is a resulting re-orientation of virtual particle pairs in the vacuum; the vacuum is polarized.

This vacuum polarization acts to attract sub-atomic particles, protons, electrons, or quarks which may be nearby. This net attractive force between sub-atomic particles caused by vacuum polarization has been shown by SED physicists to be quantitatively identical to gravity. So, the larger the collection of particles, the stronger is the resulting attraction we call gravity. Haisch concluded his explanation when he said, “This might explain why gravity is so weak. One mass does not pull directly on another mass but only through the intermediary of the [charged virtual particles that make up the] vacuum.” [95]  On this basis, then, gravitation and mass may be considered to be simply manifestations of electromagnetic effects linked with the ZPE."
The speed at which these gravitational interactions occur is then dependent entirely on the speed at which the virtual particles come together in the vacuum polarization process, which is the origin of gravity. This can be deduced from standard equations relating to the kinetic energy ( ½ mv²) of one
charged particle in the field of another (q²[2rε]) where “q” is the charge, “r” is the distance apart, and “ε” is the electric permittivity of the vacuum and m is the mass of the particle and v its velocity. This is the velocity with which the particles come together after traveling a distance “r.” Thus the equation starts as …

½ mv²  =  q² / [2rε]

So we obtain from this

v²  =  q² / [mrε]  = (q² / ε ) (1 / [mr])

Earlier work in the Monograph has shown that with a varying ZPE the quantity (q² / ε) remains unchanged. This quantity shows that velocity of approach of the virtual particles does not change with any ZPE changes. However, we need to consider the quantity (mr) with ZPR variation. As the cosmos expanded, the ZPE built up. Consequently, more virtual particle pairs per unit volume came into existence. The analysis in the Monograph shows that the mass of those particles, m, is proportional to the square of ZPE strength. In addition, the distance apart of the charges, r, will lessen as the ZPE builds up. Analysis suggests that r is inversely proportional to ZPE strength. Thus the quantity (mr) will remain constant. The ultimate outcome is that the velocity of transmittal of the effects causing gravity are, first, unchanged as the ZPE varies with time, and, second, that velocity or speed is of the order of 10¹⁰ times the current speed of light, just as Van Flandern’s analysis indicated.

I hope that is helpful.
Barry Setterfield,

21st December, 2022.