Professor Sean Carroll is a proponent of the General-Relativity expanding-universe —even though he finds it to be staggeringly unnatural. Image source: www.thegreatcourses.com. |
(5) Aether provided the perfect explanation for the phenomenon called stellar aberration which had been discovered by the English astronomer James Bradley early in the 18thcentury. The aberration of starlight is the apparent angular displacement of a star in the direction of motion of the observer. Because of the motion of the Earth around the Sun at a speed of about 30 km/second, an observer will see a star not in its true position but in anapparent position. An explanation of the effect is consistent with the motion of Earth through ‘stationary’ aether.
(6) There was (and still is) a need to establish a frame of reference for the measurement of what is termed absolute motion. Referencing relative motion, of course, was not a problem; the details (at least for classical speeds) had been worked out by Galileo. With his equations, one could relate the velocity of an object to any arbitrarily chosen frame of reference (stationary or moving). However, what if one wanted to determine the motion of something, not with respect to another object or frame, but rather with respect to space itself? In other words, take away the “relative” aspect and try to define some sort of fundamental meaning of motion. If space is truly and totally empty, then there is a problem. Then there would be no way to reference absolute motion —no way to answer the question, absolute motion with respect to what? Clearly, something more than “space” was needed. And for 19th-century physicists like Augustin Fresnel, Albert Michelson and Edward Morley, and others, aetherwas just the thing. Aether could give motion its deeper meaning. The frame “attached” to a proposed aether, and motionless with respect to it, could serve as a preferred frame of reference. Absolute speed then acquires meaning —absolute speed with respect to aether-space (not with respect to the observer).
The motivation for such a reference was extremely important and should not be underestimated. “Without such a reference ... the very idea of motion becomes vague, and all of the nineteenth century development of physics becomes shaky.” [6] By mid-nineteenth century it became clear that no material object in the universe represented a state of absolute rest and that absolute motion could not therefore be measured relative to any material object.[7] It was not merely a hypothetical issue. The need for some kind of absolute reference was real; after all, physicists were incorporating into their theories and equations a kind of motion that was inexplicably invariant. The speed of light —the speed of photon particles or EM waves— is absolute. It is undeniably so. Its absolute value is about 300,000 km/second; but absolute (or invariant) with respect to what? The observer is irrelevant; with or without the observer, the speed has a fixed value. Why?
The contemporary way of expressing the historic question goes like this. If all motion is relative, as Einstein’s special relativity theory claims, then how is it possible to enforce Nature’s absolute speed-limit. Her strict speed-of-light barrier is imposed on all entities (entities of all scales). In a rational world, an absolute limit needs absolute motion to which it can be applied. Clearly, the motivation for invoking aether-space resides not only in the historic past.
(7) Both Newton’s “spooky” action at a distance and Einstein’s curvature magic were unacceptable as causal explanations of gravity. Aether was needed to (somehow) convey the gravitational force or effect. René Descartes and Christian Huygens invoked a swirling aether-fluid to convey gravitation. Newton himself suggested that there may be variations of some sort in an all-pervading aether. Then jumping to the 21st century: Reginald Cahill explains gravity as a self-dissipating (contractile) process of aether-space; and DSSU theory (the theory of the Dynamic Steady State Universe) explains unified gravity (Lambda and normal gravity) as a dual-dynamic process of aether.
(8) Undoubtedly, the most powerful motivator was the experimental results that demanded the existence of aether. The repeated detection of absolute motion —of Earth’s absolute motion through space— provided the vital evidence of a preferred frame-of-reference, which is simply the frame in which the aether is at rest. Beginning with the famous experiment of 1887 and then in at least six other documented experiments, the evidence was found. As we saw earlier, the concept of absolute motion is inseparable from the concept of aether. Thus, if you find evidence of the former then your theory must include the latter.
The notion of a universal medium permeating all space has undergone many vicissitudes and spawned even more variants.
The posited substance called aether has changed considerably over the time period covered by the Table. Sometimes the change was radical. It is a pattern that the history of science has witnessed before. For instance, the electron posited by J. J. Thompson differs radically from the electron defined by Schrödinger’s wave equation, which in turn differs just as radically from the electron defined by Dirac’s relativistic theory of the electron. In the same spirit, the static aether of Huygens and Maxwell differs radically from the mono-dynamic aether of Augustin Cauchy which in turn differs radically from the dual-dynamic aether of DSSU theory. Electron or aether, when posited under a more advanced theory was able to explain more phenomena.
4 Chronology of the Development of Aether Theory
Author or Event | Aether Type or Attribute | REMARKS |
Pre-scientific development. Aristotle | Fifth element (aka quintessence, the boundless) | Prior to the period called the Scientific Revolution, aether was a recurring idea in ancient worldviews and philosophical doctrines. Aristotle believed the heavens (that region beyond the sphere of the Moon) are made of a fifth substance called aether. Unlike the other four substances, which can be transformed into one another, aether is unchanging and indestructible. |
René Descartes (1596-1650) | Continuous fluid aether; Gravitational aether | Descartes maintained that the world is a Plenum and there is no true vacuum or void. He believed in a continuous ether that completely fills the space not occupied by solid bodies and mediates their interactions by means of a system of vortices ---the whole universe was a system of interlocking vortices or “tourbillons.” The planets, for instance, are carried around by a sea of aether moving in whirlpool fashion, producing what we would call gravitational effects. All space was a sea filled with matter that swirled around in large and small vortices (forming the Cartesian Vortex universe).[8] Descartes referred to the aether as the “second matter” and “second element.” |
Isaac Newton (1642-1727) | Particulate aether; Gravitational aether | Newton’s force-law of gravity lacked a causal mechanism and an explanation was sought of how such a force could be transmitted over vast distances through apparently empty space. “Newton at times thought universal gravity might be caused by the impulses of a stream of aether particles bombarding an object or by variations in an all-pervading aether” but did not advance either of these notions in hisPrincipia because, as he ultimately said, he would “not feign hypotheses” as physical explanations.[9] His followers, however, proposed that the gravitational effect of a body would be expressed as a distortion of the aether ---a distortion that travels outward as an ‘aether wave,’ much like a sound wave travels through air, and eventually reaches another body and affects it. |
Isaac Newton | Luminiferous aether | Newton held the view that light rays consisted of a stream of particles in rectilinear motion and that the light particles stimulated, or were accompanied by, vibrations in an all pervading aether. |
Isaac Newton 1717 | Density varying aether A corpuscular aether | In 1717 Newton published his views on the transmission of gravity and other forces —published in the form of further Queries, added to a new edition of the Opticks. The central feature was a tenuous medium, filling all space, which he called the aether. As noted above it was a luminiferous aether. Furthermore, it conveyed the forces of cohesion and repulsion by which matter was maintained in ordered systems. But most interestingly it had a variable density. Newton supposed the aether to be denser in empty space than in the vicinity of massive bodies and thereby provide a mechanism for gravitational attraction: the Earth then moved towards the Sun under the pressure of the aether, like a cork rising from the depths of the sea. In the controversy over a continuous versus discrete medium, Newton, who was now seventy-five years old, conceded that the aether itself might be corpuscular. |
The Torricelli Experiment Evangelista Torricelli (1608-47) | Vastly more subtle than air | It was one of the most significant experiments of the 17th century. Essentially it eliminated the traditional Greek element “air” as being identifiable with aether.What the space above the mercury in the barometer tube contained was “subtle matter” many times lighter than air. In order to explain, without employing magical action-at-a-distance, the transmission of light, heat, and magnetism across the Torricellian vacuum, it was necessary to postulate a subtle medium, or aether, which remained when the air was removed. |
Christian Huygens (1629-95) | Stationary luminiferous aether gravitational aether | In 1678 and 1690 Huygens proposed a wave theory of light in which waves propagated longitudinally through a stationary aether. The speed of propagation was finite. This aether was continuous throughout space and consisted of hard elastic particles which transmitted impulses without being displaced themselves. Huygens, a follower of Descartes, shared the view that gravity was nothing more than "the action of the aether, which circulates around the centre of the Earth, striving to travel away from the centre, and to force those bodies which do not share its motion to take its place". In 1669, to demonstrate the idea, he conducted a simple experiment that seemed to support the vortex theory of gravity. A whirlpool was induced in a bowl of water; this action caused pebbles to be drawn to the centre of the vortex at the middle of the bowl. |
Discovery in 1728 of stellar aberration | James Bradley detected the apparent displacement of stars; a phenomenon he attributed to Earth’s orbital motion. This was clear evidence that the speed of light is not instantaneous. | |
Georges-Louis Le Sage (1724-1803) Swiss mathematician & physicist | Kinetic aether | In 1748, Le Sage proposed an aether consisting of tiny particles ---he called them ultra-mundane corpuscles--- streaming in all direction with enormous speed. Le Sage used this aether as the basis for a kinetic theory of gravity (which theory was based on the mechanical model of gravity originally proposed by Newton's friend Nicolas Fatio de Duillier in 1690). Le Sage's aether may be considered the first to serve in a theory of the cause of gravity. But note, it was NOT A GRAVITATIONAL AETHER; it was kinetic rather than dynamic!According to this theory, the "ultra-mundane corpuscles," moving at high speed and coming from all directions, are continually impacting on all material objects. Any two material bodies would partially shield each other from the flux of impinging corpuscles and establish a pressure imbalance. This imbalance, then, tends to drive the bodies together, and so, provides a 'push-gravity' explanation for Newton's gravitational force. |
Leonhard Euler (1707-1783) Swiss mathematician & physicist | Universal medium | The great Swiss mathematician conjectured that the aether transmits not only heat and light, but also magnetic and electric forces and gravitation.[10] Euler was a notable adherent of the aether-wave theory of light, as opposed to Newton’s corpuscular version. |
Pierre Simon de Laplace (1749-1827) French mathematician and astronomer | Variable density | Laplace investigated the ideas that the density of the aether was proportional to the radial distance from the center of a body (the Sun for instance) and that the force of gravity is generated by the impulse [a pushing action? a kind of gravity wave?] of such aether medium. Laplace hypothesized that the effect of gravity is propagated with a speed between 7-million and 100-million times that of light. [“Traitè de Mécanique Célèste” 1803; “Exposition du Système du Monde”] This rules out the notion that the flow of the medium itself is involved in Laplace’s cause of gravity. |
Thomas Young (1773-1829) “a physician by profession and a physicist by inclination” | Luminiferous aether; aether as a gas | Young’s wave theory of light (1801), like Huygens’, consisted of longitudinal vibrations (similar to sound waves) in a luminiferous aether. A gas, of course, readily conducts such waves. Young’s famous 2-slit interference-pattern experiment allowed him to precisely measure the wavelength of light. |
Discovery of the polarization of light by Étienne Louis Malus (1775-1812) in 1808; subsequently guided Augustin Fresnel also guided Thomas Young | Aether as a rigid-gas | The phenomenon of light polarization doomed the longitudinal-wave hypothesis. Polarization seemed to establish the fact that light consisted of transverse waves. And transverse waves demanded a rigid-substance type of medium. In 1817, French physicist, A. Fresnel (1788-1827) introduced the transverse wave theory of light which could account for all the known phenomena of optics; consequently the aether became solid-like and rigid yet allowed the free passage of heavenly bodies. In Fresnel’s view, the aether flowed through the interstices of material bodies even on the smallest scale; but he did allow for matter to have a small dragging effect on the aether. Thomas Young, in an effort to accommodate light polarization, reintroduced his wave theory. This time he proposed a periodic TRANSVERSE displacement of aether particles. "Transverse displacements however can be propagated only in a solid medium, and so began the search, which was to last throughout the century, for mechanical models of a solid elastic aether.” —Physics historian Mary B. Hesse |
George Stokes (1819-1903) | Elastically solid aether | Stokes’ view was that aether was rigid enough to convey transverse light waves, but could not be compressed or expanded ---and simply yielded to permit the movement of objects within it. But unlike Fresnel’s aether which flowed almost unhindered through all matter, Stokes’ aether is somehow restricted in its otherwise free movement. The implication is that Earth, for instance, not only has aether flowing through its mass but also drags aether along with it. His was an entrained-aether hypothesisand was later invoked by D. Miller as an explanation of the unexpectedly low velocities his data indicated.[11] It should be pointed out that Cauchy (see entry below) was the first, as of 1831, to propose a theory whereby the Earth drags the aether. Stokes adopted the aether-drag concept around 1845. |
Augustin Cauchy (1789-1857) | First attempts to make aether dynamic | Theory #1: Aether changed in density. Theory #2: Aether changed in elasticity. Theory #3: Then in 1839 Cauchy proposed an aether that was contractile or “labile,” “possessing a negative compressibility.” [Mason, p472] Today we would call this a negative Λ or a simple gravity effect. |
George Green (1793-1841) | Suspiciously like a gravitational aether | Physicist George Green pointed out that Cauchy’s contractile aether would be unstable tending to contract all the time. |
Clerk Maxwell (1831-79) | a more inclusive luminiferous aether : electromagnetic aether | Maxwell expanded and developed the qualitative aspects of Faraday’s conception of lines of electrical and magnetic force. Finding “it inconceivable that a wave motion should propagate in empty space” he, therefore, employed the aether of the contemporary wave theory of light. “Lines of force, Maxwell supposed, were tubes of [a]ether rotating on their axes. The centrifugal force of such rotations caused the tubes to expand sideways and contract lengthways, as Faraday had suggested in order to explain attraction and repulsion.” And it is these rotating tubes that carry electrical particles along, from one tube to the next and the next, in what amounts to a form of transverse undulations at the speed of light.[12] This aether is a quasi-material elastic medium. Whether it is ultimately continuous or discrete was left undecided. Maxwell’s theory treats aether as the preferred frameof reference in which light propagates with constant speed in all directions. Notwithstanding the inclusion of microscopic rotating tubes, aether was viewed as a stationary medium. |
Lord Kelvin James MacCullagh Sir Oliver Lodge And others | Many other aether models were proposed during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Some models even attempted to accommodate the properties of matter. But for the most part, 19th-century aether served only to transmit the force of gravity and the waves of the electromagnetic spectrum. Aether itself was unaffected and therefore could not be set in motion. | |
PIVOTAL YEAR OF 1887 | first detection of aether | Prior to 1887 aether was hypothetical. Post 1887, aether was real. |
Michelson-Morley aether experiment of 1887 Albert A. Michelson (1852-1931) Edward Williams Morley (1838-1923) | Physical detection | Using a Michelson optical interferometer mounted on a sandstone base, the aether wind was measured to be 8.8 km/s during noonday observations (and 8.0 km/s during evening) relative to the Earth. Unfortunately, this was considerably less than the 30 km/s, which would be expected due to the Earth’s orbital motion about the sun. What at first appeared to be an anomalous finding was downgraded over the years and became the so called ‘null result’ now often quoted but entirely without justification. |
George FitzGerald, Irish physicist, in 1889, 1891 | Aether as the source of relativistic effects | The smallness of M-M measurements was explained “on the hypothesis that the forces binding the molecules of a solid might be modified by the motion of the solid through the [a]ether in such a way that the dimension of the stone base of the interferometer would be shortened in the direction of motion and that this contraction ... neutralizes the optical effect sought in the Michelson-Morley aether experiment.” [13] For the first time in history it was proposed that aether has the ability, not merely to change the course of objects (as does gravitational aether), but to change the size of objects. FitzGerald’s aether had the relativistic ability to contract the dimensions of any object: contraction occurring in the direction of motion and in proportion to the speed through the aether! |
Hendrick A. Lorentz (1853-1928), Dutch physicist, in 1895 | " | Lorentz developed the FitzGerald hypothesis into a sound theory. Given that the atoms of all solids are held together by electrical forces, then the motion of a body as a whole would, according to Clerk Maxwell’s physics, superpose upon the electrostatic forces between the atoms a magnetic effect due to the motion. “There would result a contraction of the body in the direction of motion which is proportional to the square of the ratio of the velocities of translation and of light and which would have a magnitude such as to annul the effect of [a]ether-drift in the Michelson-Morley interferometer.” [14] The validity of this theory was later confirmed. Whenever the experiment was performed in a vacuum the aether-effect on the optical interferometer was (and still is) totally annulled. |
Morley & Miller in 1902 Cleveland | Physical detection | The sensitivity of the optical interferometer was increased by making the physical arm-length 4.30 m, thereby increasing the effective length to 32 m (more than 3 times the length in the 1887 experiment). Then to test the FitzGerald-Lorentz effect upon a different solid, the sandstone base of the optical interferometer was replaced with a pine-wood base. The aether drift measured 10 km/s. Their next experiment was in 1904 and saw the first use of the Michelson interferometer mounted on a steel-girder base. Each arm was again 430 cm long. The instrument measured about 7.5 km/s. In 1905 the same steel-girder apparatus recorded 8.7 km/s. |
Albert Einstein in 1905 | Superfluous aether | Historically, the only serious blow against aether came from Einstein when he formulated his theory of relativity. He was puzzled by the fact that the mathematical laws (Maxwell’s laws) governing electricity, magnetism, and light implicitly define apreferred reference frame in which the speed of light is the same in all directions, whereas Newton’s laws of motion and gravitation do not. Why this lack of mathematical harmony? Electromagnetic phenomena require a special frame of reference; yet dynamic phenomena do not. Einstein was faced with a critical choice. He could concur with the three-centuries-old consensus about the existence of aether, accept the FitzGerald-Lorentz explanation of the Michelson-Morley ‘null’ result, and find the special frame of reference that rules motion and gravitation. It would have led to his sought after mathematical consistency. Or, he could achieve consistency by attempting to extirpate the preferred reference frame from Maxwell’s laws. He chose the latter course.[15] But, as the following experimental evidence accumulated, it became ever clearer that he had failed. The preferred frame and the aether refused to go away. |
The Sagnac Experiment, 1913 | Preferential frame of reference | Whereas the 1887 MM experiment was the first test of absolute translational motion, the Sagnac experiment was the first test of absolute rotational motion. On a rotating platform, M.G. Sagnac split light from a single monochromatic source into cw and ccw rays that traveled identical paths in opposite directions around the platform. He combined the returning rays to form a visible interference pattern, and found that the fringes shifted as the speed of rotation changed. The procedure involved measuring the difference in the travel time of light rays circumnavigating the rotating disk (0.25 m radius) in opposite directions. The circular path is achieved by the use of mirrors mounted on the disk along the circumference. As in the MM experiment, the time difference was detectable as a fringe shift of the interference pattern of the recombined light beam. Sagnac found, in agreement with prediction, a significant fringe shift. In fact, a rotational speed of 13 m/s produces a full fringe shift. If the speed of light were locally invariant, then speeding up or slowing of the rotation rate of the platform should not change the location of the fringes. However, the fringes do change with speed and we can determine a preferred frame—in violation of the second relativity postulate and the hypothesis of locality.[16] |
Dayton Miller in 1921 Mt. Wilson | Physical detection | In April of 1921 Miller’s steel-girder apparatus was tested on Mt. Wilson and measured 10 km/s. (Mt. Wilson, California, has Lat. 34°13′ N and alt. 1750m) In Dec of 1921 the steel base was replaced with a concrete one to exclude any possible magnetic effects. Same result, 10 km/s. |
Miller in 1922-24 Cleveland | " | Various apparatus changes and procedural methods were extensively tested. Some improvements were made. Tests of intentional temperature variations in “these experiments proved that under the conditions of actual observation, the periodic displacements could not possibly be produced by temperature effects”[17]as is so often claimed. Throughout the many trials the optical interferometer never failed to produce consistently positive results. |
Miller in 1924 Mt. Wilson | " | Again measured about 10 km/s. |
Miller in 1925-26 Mt. Wilson | the direction of aether-flow | While in previous experiments the direction of relative motion between Earth and aether had been assumed, this series of experiments was designed to actually measure the direction. Readings were made throughout 24 hour periods; naturally during the 24 hour rotation of the Earth on its axis there would occur two instances when the fringe shifts became maximum, thereby, indicating the approximate direction of aether drift (somewhat in the manner by which the ocean tides indicate the direction of the moon). Then, by checking the direction —by repeating the 24 hour test— during different seasons of the Earth’s annual Solar orbit, the experiment establishes whether or not the main component of the aether wind is local or cosmic in origin. A more or less constant direction (in the celestial sphere) indicates a cosmic origin. Data was collected April 1, August 1, and September 15, 1925, and February 8, 1926. The line of motion was established but there was some uncertainty as to which diametrically opposite direction actually represented the apex of the motion. Eventually Miller concluded that the cosmic direction of motion of the Earth and the Solar System is (Right Ascension ~5hDeclination ~70°S) towards the constellation Dorado. The speed was calculated to be 208 km/s. In a non-optical experiment in 1991 (see DeWitte, below) the RA direction of ~5h was dramatically confirmed. |
Maurice Allais (1911- ) During 1954-1960 Saint-Germain, France | anomalous effect (possibly the direction of aether-flow) | Maurice Allais using a rigid-arm pendulum having a length of only 83 cm found that the plane of oscillation tended to rotate towards a preferential direction (azimuth) that changed with the rotation of the Earth and could not be explained by the well known Foucault Effect. Many months of observations lead Allais "to the conclusion that, in the movement of the paraconical pendulum ... there are anomalies of a periodic character which are totally inexplicable in the framework of currently accepted theories." Neither Newton's universal gravitation nor Einstein's general relativity could explain the significant periodic change in the plane of oscillating motion. In 1999 Professor Allais wrote: “Science has lost at least forty years. Not only have my experiments not been followed up, but they have been successfully hidden.” [18] It is interesting and useful to note an essential difference between the Foucault and Allais pendulums. In the former the pendulum’s bob and wire do not turn (relative to the Earth frame) since the bob and wire are not free to pivot, only the nonmaterial swing plane turns; while in the latter the pendulum’s bob-and-rigid-arm assembly is free to turn. The Foucault pendulum measures the Coriolis effect while the Allais pendulum supposedly measures the direction of aether flow. |
Roland DeWitte in 1991 Brussels | the direction of aether-flow | A surprisingly simple experiment (at least in principle). A radio frequency signal travels forth-and-back through a coaxial cable that is 1.5 km long and aligned in a North-South direction. The key data is the difference between the travel times for N-to-S propagation and S-to-N propagation. As the Earth rotates this difference varies. The sidereal time for maximum effect occurs at ~5h and at ~17h and confirms the direction found by Miller over 60 years earlier! Furthermore, the flow speed agreed with Miller’s 1925-26 results. This agreement was revealed years later when R. Cahill’s theory of aether-space showed that both experiments give 420±30 km/s. The experiment lasted 178 days and confirmed that the effect was periodic with sidereal time, not solar time. The aether motion was of extra-solar-system origin —or galactic origin. |
First discovery of gravitational waves 1991 | Aether turbulence (gravitational waves) | The DeWitte (1991) experiment represents the first detection of gravity waves as a strong 1st-order effect. (Miller's gravity waves, in contrast, must be extracted from an extremely weak 2nd-order effect). After "Removing the earth induced rotation effect we obtain the first experimental data of the turbulent structure of space," ... " the data ... show turbulence in the flow of space past the earth. This is what can be called gravitational waves." [19] |
Yuri M. Galaev 1998-1999, Ukraine, Kharkov | Physical detection using a radiowave interferometer of the 1st order | Supports the theory of the aether as “the material medium which is responsible for propagation of electromagnetic waves.” |
Yuri M. Galaev 2001-2002, Ukraine, Kharkov | Physical detection using an optical interferometer of the 1st order | The type of wave interferometer used in this experiment differed from the Michelson-type in that it measures the first-order effect of the velocity difference along two separate paths taken by the electromagnetic waves (while the Michelson interferometer measures the much smaller 2nd-order velocity effect). The kinematic viscosity of the aether was determined. But most significant is the confirmation that "The velocity of optical wave propagation depends on the radiation direction and ... changes its value with a period per one stellar day." [20] Although the intensity of the effect was small, the variation of the measured ether-drift velocity was distinctly dependent on the sidereal daily cycle, and agreed remarkably well with Miller's findings. Galaev determined that the absolute motion of the Solar system is towards the celestial coordinates (RA = ~17.5h, Dec = ~+65º) which is equivalent to saying that the aether is flowing towards the 180º opposite direction (RA= 5.5 hr, Dec = −65 deg).[21] This is remarkable confirmation of the flow direction (RA= 5.2 hr, Dec = −67 deg) that Miller had painstakingly derived 3/4 of a century earlier. There could now be no doubt that the aether wind is of galactic source from beyond the Solar System. Galaev concluded that the aether is consistent with a medium composed of discrete particles, and that the aether is responsible for electromagnetic waves propagation. |
Pivotal Year of 2002 | First "discovery" of luminiferousand gravitational aether | Process Physics represents the first testable theory using a luminiferous and gravitational aether-space in the context of the expanding universe model. The DSSU model represents the first testable theory using a luminiferous and gravitational aether-space in the context of the non-expanding cellular-universe model. |
Reginald T. Cahill (1946- ) in 2002 Australia | Re-analysis of data from earlier Physical detection | Cahill realized that absolute motion through aether-space is the cause of various well-established relativistic effects. Back in 1887 Michelson and Morley were, of course, unaware of the relativistic effects and had simply used the Newtonian theory for the calibration of their optical interferometer. The M-M and the Miller data were carefully reanalyzed, the new calibration factor was applied, and the full magnitude of the aether drift velocity was at long last revealed. That elusive 30 km/s tangential velocity due to the orbital motion of the Earth through aether had been there all along. It was one of three main components contributing to the net aether-flow vector. The other two aether motions were identified as the space inflow converging on the Sun (42 km/s solar concentric), and a substantial cosmic component of 420±30 km/s in the direction (RA=5.2 hr, Dec=−67 deg). This cosmic component represents the aether flowing through the Solar System. Cahill also exposed the flaw in the experiments that reported null, or near zero, results for the detection of aether. The historic and current evidence clearly shows that only a Michelson interferometer in gas-mode can detect a path length difference, the signature of absolute motion through aether. The light beam must travel through air or some other gas. When the interferometer is placed in a vacuum, aether-flow cannot be detected. (In vacuum mode, the Lorentz-Fitzgerald length-contraction renders the instrument totally useless for this purpose.) [22] |
Discovery of the mechanism of gravity in 2002 | “Process” aether Gravitational (dynamic) aether | Cahill discovered the causal mechanism of gravity as part of a realization that aether-space is a dynamic fluid and a key component of what is known as Process Physics. Gravity is re-defined as the inhomogeneous bulk inflow of aether-space towards and into matter. The key point is that “It is this inhomogeneity rather than the motion [of aether] itself that actually is the phenomena we know as gravity.” [23] This definition of gravity concurs with the one developed independently within DSSU theory. |
Cosmology theory (called DSSU) developed in 2002 Based on the epochal insight that the Universe is cellularly structured into cosmic cells ofdynamic aether-space. | “DSSU aether-space” A unified aether described as: (1) Luminiferous; (2) Gravitationally dual-dynamic; (3) Boundless. | (1) The aether serves as the medium for the propagation of electromagnetic waves. (2) The aether is gravitationally dual-dynamic in the sense that it expands and also contracts. The actual gravity effect is conveyed by the gradient of the rate of change of the bulk motion of aether-space. (3) The aether serves as the nonmaterial substance from which all matter/energy is derived. The aether serves as both a luminiferous aether and a unified gravitational aether. Aether, by being dynamic, is responsible for normal gravity (contractile) as well as anti-gravity (generic Λ). The two are regionally balanced so that |gravity| = +Λ . Aether-space (on the cosmic scale) expands in certain regions and contracts in other regions. This dynamic activity manifests as the cosmic cell structure observed by astronomers. Cells (of cosmic scale) are self-regulating in size and are in a perpetual steady state of simultaneous expansion and contraction. The cells constitute a Euclidean structure that exists within the non-expanding universe. The DSSU infinite universe is a quasi-static lattice-like structure of unit-universes. Electromagnetic phenomena are CONDUCTION properties of the aether-space. Gravitational phenomena are DYNAMIC FLOW properties of aether-space. Agreement with observation is unparalleled.[24] |
R.T. Cahill in 2007 | Gravitational aether makes “dark matter” redundant; (theory application) | By successfully applying his dynamical 3-space aether theory to galaxies and galaxy clusters Cahill eliminated the need for "dark matter." [25] Process-aether was shown to produce the contractile effect (Cahill calls it the 3-space self-interaction effect) that had long been attributed to some kind of mysterious unsubstantiated matter. In effect, Cahill found that dynamic aether is gravitationally more powerful than is Newton’s force and Einstein’s geometrized space. |
First ever dynamic aether consisting of non-energy, non-mass, discrete units (2009) | Aether as discrete entities with no energy, no mass | Aether serves as a subquantum substrate —as the discretized "essence" of the universe. Aether units are essentially non-energy fundamental fluctuators. And in keeping with a most remarkable definition of the fundamental process of energy, DSSU aether is dynamic without the units of aether themselves possessing energy. This is an unprecedented combination of properties. (See reference in next entry.) |
Conceptual unification of energy, mass, and gravity (in 2010) | DSSU aether | First conceptual unification of aether, energy, mass, gravity, and "space" (i.e., DSSU’s non-material aether).[26] |
Aether explanation for “refractive” speed variation (of photons). A DSSU concept (but possibly predates the DSSU revolution). | Luminiferous | The phenomenon of light refraction consists of (i) a characteristic bending and (ii) an apparent decrease in the speed of the light. The latter has a ready explanation in the aether theory. Essentially, the speed of EM-waves (photons) in a material medium remains unchanged. The speed, with respect to the aether, remains unaltered and unalterable —it is always c with respect to aether. BUT because of the phenomenon ofphoton scattering by the atomic structure of the dielectric medium, the path-length of the photon increases and thereby gives the appearance of a slowing of wave/photon propagation —an effect associated with refraction and measured as the dielectric refractive index. The increase in path length and its connection to the refraction index is described, in mathematical detail, by Professor Cahill (www.ptep-online.com/index_files/2011/PP-24-04.pdf). |
New explanation found for the “Fresnel drag effect” (in 2011) | Luminiferous | R.T. Cahill and David Brotherton determined that there is no actual “drag” phenomenon. Rather, the “Fresnel drag effect” is merely the consequence of the manner in which photons are conducted (by simple electromagnetic scattering) within a dielectric mediumand of the velocity (speed & direction) of the luminiferous aether flowing through the dielectric. The basic principle involved here is that the one-way speed of light is not constant, but depends on the velocity of the aether wind.[27] (It is ironic that Augustin Fresnel who, in the early 1800s, believed in an aether which flowed unhinderedthrough all matter, should have his name associated with an effect whereby a transparent medium, like glass or water, while in rapid motion, somehow tends to drag the aether along with itself albeit with a reduced speed. Cauchy and Stokes were the originators of the aether drag concept.) |
Discovery of the gravity mechanism of cosmic structure (in 2012) | Gravitational DSSU aether | The universe consists of autonomous gravity domains which are perpetually sustained by Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary gravity processes. (The processes are, respectively, aether excitation-annihilation by matter/energy, aether self-dissipation in contractile-gravity regions, and aether expansion by axiomatic imperative.) In terms of these gravity domains, the universe is a "dense packing" of tetrahedral and octahedral cosmic-scale gravity cells.[28] |
Discovery of velocity-differential mechanism of cosmic redshift (in 2013) | Inhomogeneous aether flow | The combination of (i) the fact that aether is the conducting medium of light and (ii) the fact that aether is not static but is involved in a dynamic flow, in accordance with the aether theory of gravity, leads directly to a new mechanism of cosmic redshift. It has been proven that contraction of aether-space can cause spectral redshifting. What this means is that lightwaves stretch not only in expanding "space," as has long been known, but they also stretch in inhomogeneously contracting "space." [29] The implications for cosmology are profound. |
Notes: Historically there are three basic types of aether: (i) Aristotle’s fifth element, (ii)luminiferous, and (iii) gravitational. The symbol Λ stands for the cosmological constant in most conventional theories, and for the generic expansion of the space medium in DSSU theory.
|
For the research papers of Reginald T. Cahill and the aether theory based on Process Physics see: Modern Scientific Theories of Aether
For a significant collection of aether and aether related articles see: Aether Theories - Collation of Modern Scientific Theories of the Aether
An excellent chronological reference: A Ridiculously Brief History of Electricity and Magnetism (Mostly from Edmund T. Whittaker’s book: A History of the Theories of Aether and Electricity...)
SELECTED SOURCES OF HISTORICAL DETAILS:
Encyclopedia of Cosmology, Norriss S. Hetherington, Editor. 1993 (Garland Publishing Inc., NY & London)
A History of the Sciences by Stephen F. Mason. 1962 (Collier Books, N.Y.)
The Architecture of Matter by Stephen Toulmin and June Goodfield. 1962 (University of Chicago Press, Chicago)
Science: its History and Development Among the World Cultures by Colin Ronan. 1982 (The Hamlyn Publishing Group Ltd., New York)
A History of the Theories of Aether & Electricity, Edmund T. Whittaker (Reprinted: Dover Publications, New York, 1989)
Comments