The Structure of Matter in the Meta Model

Tom Van Flandern

(reprinted from Meta Research Bulletin of 2003/12/15)

We begin with the gravity model previously discussed at length in these pages. [[1]] In it, the apple falls from the tree because an effectively universal flux of ultra-small, ultra-fast gravitons bombards all matter from all directions in space at all times; but some of that flux is partially blocked by the Earth, resulting in a net graviton wind blowing down toward the Earth. See Figure 1. Among the many effects of these gravitons, the "ocean" of "elysons" that comprise the effectively universal light-carrying medium we call "elysium" is made denser near all large masses by the downward pressure of graviton winds. That greater density of the optical medium in which light propagates (equivalent to the gravitational potential field) produces the relativistic effects of light-bending, gravitational redshift, and Shapiro delay via the mechanism of refraction. All this takes place in flat space, with the refraction represented by the same math as the Riemann curvature tensor of general relativity (GR).

Moreover, change is measured by a universal time, although motion and potential do slow the rate at which electromagnetic-phenomena-based clocks tick. GR remains valid, although its "geometric" physical interpretation is replaced by the "field" interpretation. And special relativity (SR) is falsified in favor of Lorentzian relativity (LR) based on the same Lorentz transformations, but without a speed-of-light universal speed limit.

Figure 1. An object on or near the left side of a mass will experience a net push toward that mass because arriving gravitons from the right that would have hit the object are sometimes blocked by the mass; whereas arriving gravitons from the left are unobstructed. This produces a net graviton wind through the object directed toward the center of the mass.

This light-carrying (elysium) medium and this graviton medium operate on all observable scales from galaxy super-clusters down to the smallest quantum particles. These concepts originally arose from a cosmology (the "Meta Model") deduced entirely from first principles without assumptions of a physical nature, having many other interesting implications. [[2]] It does not seem likely that yet another medium would exist and operate on the quantum scale to explain electricity and magnetism, nor likely that this additional medium would exist but have no detectable influences on the graviton medium or on elysium. However, it does seem likely that the behavior of elysium and gravitons would be drastically different at quantum scales than at laboratory or astrophysical scales because of the scale difference.

The Meta Model (MM) has implications for the quantum world, but stops short of attempting to model electricity and magnetism or the structure of matter itself (especially protons, neutrons, and electrons). In the present article, we plunge deeper into the problem, always trying to work deductively to assure a reasonable degree of uniqueness.

First, we need to consider the implications of gravitational shielding – a phenomenon of matter so dense that the normal flux of gravitons cannot easily penetrate it. This is one of the new properties of gravity implied by MM and possibly detected observationally in the Lageos satellites. See Figure 2. Surely, if any known matter might be dense enough to absorb a significant fraction of all gravitons passing through, the interiors of quantum particles such as protons would qualify. Protons ought to be denser than any larger body made up mainly of protons and neutrons because the larger body would have the density of protons and neutrons (presumably similar to one another) averaged together with the density of some "empty" space.

Figure 2. Shadowing (upper half): Matter in each body shadows the other from some impacts from the isotropic flux of gravitons surrounding everything (not shown), resulting in a net push toward one another. Shielding (lower half): A body is so large and dense that no gravitons can reach parts of its interior, resulting in a lesser shadowing or force on other bodies than it would have if part of its mass were not shielded..

The point here is that gravitational shielding ought to be a significant force at some scale. Perhaps the main ingredients of atoms are the right scale, thereby making particles at that scale appear special. Larger particles would behave more classically with negligible shielding, and much smaller particles would perhaps be unable to do what ordinary matter appears to do: hold significant amounts of elysium near themselves in an extended atmosphere. When the density of matter becomes great enough that elysium particles (elysons) can no longer flow freely through them, we would expect to see changes in behavior. When the density is great enough that gravitons can no longer flow freely through, we would expect to see another type of change in properties.

If the efficiency of absorption of gravitons by, e.g., protons is quite high, then the strength of the inverse square force generated in the immediate vicinity would be very much greater than for ordinary matter, where the absorption efficiency is low. So estimates of the strength of gravitational force for protons based on a Newtonian force law could be incorrect by an indefinitely great amount. An immediate corollary of the intense inverse-square field produced by graviton absorption by protons is its effect on elysium. Near ordinary matter, the density of elysium gets compacted by the gravitational field, with its density correlated with gravitational potential. The same would be true near protons except that, because the field is so much more intense, the compaction of the local elysium would likewise be extreme.

In other words, quantum particles should be surrounded by an extended atmosphere with a very high number density of elysons. Now imagine what would happen if two protons tried to approach one another. The inverse square force of attraction, produced when protons shadow each other from graviton impacts from the directions toward other protons, would be strong because of the high efficiency of graviton absorption. But the highly compressed elysium atmospheres of each proton would operate like an elastic spring, overcoming the force of attraction and producing an apparent force of repulsion for any protons trying to approach one another. All protons would appear to repel one another because of the spring-like character of their ultra-dense elysium envelopes. This is apparently the property we describe as "positive charge". As such, this would be the main reason why electrostatic forces are so much stronger than computed gravitational forces operating within atoms. The elysium atmospheres of two approaching protons resist further compression with a force stronger than the gravitational force between them.

Once we have this basic starting point, we can see that, if protons nonetheless are crushed together despite the resistance of their elysium atmospheres, there will come a point when the two elysium envelopes will merge and become one envelope around two protons. Then the protons will no longer repel one another. This immediately explains the mystery of how protons can always repel, yet peaceably co-exist in close proximity in the nuclei of atoms. Such entities would manifest both wave and particle properties because of their high-density, spongy atmospheres and their “solid” cores (explaining the wave-particle duality property). So far, this picture is robust in explaining the gross qualitative properties of protons observed in experiments.

The mass and collisional cross-section of protons are measured statistically. However, the charge-to-mass ration can be measured for individual protons. We expect that the size and density of the entrained elysium atmosphere of a proton would grow in direct proportion to its mass. So in this evolving picture, we would expect the charge-to-mass ratio to remain constant, or nearly so, even if individual protons were to have a wide range of masses.

Figure 3. Lines of force for a bar magnet with poles "N" (north) and "S" (south) are similar to streamlines of flowing elysium around a moving charge.

Consider that when a charge moves, it is a tightly bound ball of denser elysium moving through the normal elysium medium. If it moves in any oscillatory way or with some characteristic amplitude, that would set off a disturbance in the elysium – light waves or “photons”. While the charge is in motion, passing elysium flows from the front face of the charge to its back face as it is pushed out of the way of the advancing proton in front and rushes to fill the vacuum in the proton's wake. Then the centers of the front and back faces of the proton will appear to act like “poles”, with the streamlines of flowing elysium going from pole to pole. See Figure 2.

Ordinary matter is too porous to detect or be influenced by flowing elysium. However, the dense elysium atmospheres of other charges would be affected, and the streamlines of flowing elysium would then represent lines of force. This is a different force than the one that drives protons apart. It behaves the way we expect of a magnetic field, and in fact creates lines of force very similar to what a bar magnet creates. We therefore see a physical model for the origin of magnetism emerging.

If a number of charges flow in sequence, one has in effect a dipole “magnet”. If another such dipole magnet is encountered, the poles (ends of the flow) that are similar will repel because the streaming of the elysium tends to separate them; and the poles that are opposite will attract so that the flow pattern of one proceeds smoothly into the flow pattern of the other, and they become in effect a single, longer dipole magnet. If a charge is set into motion near a magnet, the moving charge creates its own dipole magnet. That either reinforces or competes with the existing magnet. If the motion of the charge is taken together with the existing magnet to define a plane, then the charge will be forced to accelerate perpendicular to the plane until the streamlines of both magnets align.

Figure 4. Model of a proton (left) with elysium atmosphere dense enough to repel other protons, and an electron (right) with partial elysium vacuum created by graviton emissions dense enough to repel other electrons.

The nature of electrons is still far from a settled matter. But again using the deductive methodology from what we already think we know about the Meta Model, we note that ordinary matter is only ever-so-slightly imbalanced in that some gravitons are absorbed while the overwhelming majority are scattered. This might be regarded as a normal situation for "hard" substances such as protons. These are quantum analogs of asteroids, moons, and rocky planets on the macroscopic scale. But quantum scales might also contain "soft" substances analogous to gas giant planets and stars that scatter less and radiate more. Such bodies would retain much more of the heat deposited by gravitons and would heat up greatly, becoming net graviton emitters.

If all gravitons were scattered by a body, there would be no net force. But if the slight absorption asymmetry producing gravity were a slight emission asymmetry instead, the net force from the body would be repulsive instead of attractive. That would produce the inverse effect on neighboring elysium compared to the case for protons. The emission of gravitons would reduce the surrounding elysium density producing an effective hole in the contiguous medium. As two such “electron” bodies approached one another, they would repel because of the net excess graviton flux between them (opposite of a graviton shadow). But if such a negative-charge body approached a proton, the elysium atmosphere of the proton and the elysium vacuum of the electron would try to combine and merge.

Why should electrons emit more gravitons than they absorb? Recall the heat problem produced by gravitons. [[3],[4]] As one looks at smaller and denser quantum masses, one eventually reaches a point of density at which elysium can no longer flow freely through that body. Then heat (graviton energy) will build up in the interior, keeping the electron molten or gaseous, consistent with its lack of a discernable collisional cross-section. This also means that reflected gravitons will gain energy when they encounter the electron instead of losing it. Reflecting gravitons with more energy is the physical equivalent of emitting extra gravitons.

The same reasoning about mass applies here as applied to protons. The charge-to-mass ratio will appear to be the same for each electron, even if the bodies themselves have a wide range of masses. And just as protons radiate away excess heat into the surrounding elysium, electrons would be trying to absorb heat from the elysium-deficit surrounding them. This heat transfer balance assures that protons will always decrease the net energy of incident gravitons by the same amount that electrons increase that net energy. So heat transfer makes the forces of attraction and repulsion the same in the statistical average. It would otherwise be a coincidence that single protons and electrons exerted opposite forces having the same magnitude.

Charge and mass appear quantized because the ratio of charge to mass is a constant for single protons, and a different constant for electrons. Combining two or more particles then always appears to yield integer multiples of that basic charge and mass. In short, the nuclei of these particles may vary in size and give rise to their particle-like properties. And the elysium atmospheres are matched to particle size and give rise to their wave-like properties.

We note in passing that this model potentially solves some mysteries on cosmological scales too. If the density of elysium varies on large scales because of pressure or density waves passing through the visible, large-scale universe, these might then be responsible for galaxies forming preferentially in “walls" and avoiding "voids”. And it would tend to produce quantized redshifts because most energy loss of light waves (through friction with the graviton medium) would occur in the regions of denser elysium. Moreover, graviton absorption into elysium would produce black body photon emission to radiate away the heat. These continuous emissions from the elysium may be what we observe as the microwave radiation.

[1] T. Van Flandern (2003), "21st century gravity", MetaRes.Bull. 12, 17-29.

[2] T. Van Flandern (1999), Dark Matter, Missing Planets and New Comets, North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, chapters 1-5.

[3] T. Van Flandern (2002), "Gravity", in Pushing Gravity, M. Edwards, ed., Apeiron, Montreal, 93-122.

[4] V.J. Slabinski (2002), "Force, heat, and drag in a graviton model", in Pushing Gravity, M. Edwards, ed., Apeiron, Montreal, 123-128.