(GR). In physics, we start with assumptions and extract hidden implications using
advanced mathematical analysis. However, if a problem is missing an essential
assumption, no amount of mathematical analysis of the other required assumptions
can successfully solve the problem. It is proposed that our current view of the
universe is missing an essential starting assumption. The currently accepted starting
assumptions are sufficient to achieve mathematical equations which agree with
experiments, but they are not sufficient to give conceptually understandable
explanations of many QM and GR effects including the mechanism by which matter
curves spacetime. This paper will attempt to show that the missing fundamental
assumption is: The universe is only spacetime.
This assumption is intended to convey the idea that all particles, all fields and all
forces are just different aspects of 4 dimensional spacetime. If this assumption can
be proven correct, it has a great deal of appeal. It would unify not only the forces of
nature, but also the 17 particles of the standard model would all be related because
they would be different excitations of the single spacetime field. Even the modeling
of molecules in physical chemistry would achieve a new level of conceptual
understanding. What is being proposed is that the fabled “theory of everything”
might actually be possible if it can be shown that physics has an underlying simplicity expressed in the proposed missing assumption: The universe is only
spacetime.
To understand how this assumption is plausible, it is first necessary to describe
the model of spacetime that allows spacetime to be the single building block of
everything in the universe. The usual descriptions of spacetime come from GR.
However, it is proposed that GR describes only the macroscopic properties of
4 dimensional spacetime. For spacetime to be the single constituent of everything, it
is necessary to expand the model of spacetime to include the small scale properties
of the vacuum obtained from QM. As John Archibald Wheeler said [1] “Empty
space is not empty… The density of field fluctuation energy in the vacuum argues
that elementary particles represent percentage-wise almost completely negligible
change in the locally violent conditions that characterize the vacuum.” It is this
energetic form of the vacuum that must be combined with the macroscopic properties of spacetime to obtain the proposed single building block of all particles,
fields and forces in the universe.
2 Zero Point Energy and the Spacetime Field
Taking John Wheeler’s advice, we will start by modeling the energetic vacuum
rather than initially attempting to model particles or forces. The quantum
mechanical properties of the vacuum goes by many names including zero point
energy (ZPE), vacuum energy, vacuum fluctuations, quantum foam, etc. Even
the uncertainty principle and the virtual particle pair formation/annihilation will be
attributed to these vacuum fluctuations. Field theory states that the vacuum can be
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J.A. Macken
advanced mathematical analysis. However, if a problem is missing an essential
assumption, no amount of mathematical analysis of the other required assumptions
can successfully solve the problem. It is proposed that our current view of the
universe is missing an essential starting assumption. The currently accepted starting
assumptions are sufficient to achieve mathematical equations which agree with
experiments, but they are not sufficient to give conceptually understandable
explanations of many QM and GR effects including the mechanism by which matter
curves spacetime. This paper will attempt to show that the missing fundamental
assumption is: The universe is only spacetime.
This assumption is intended to convey the idea that all particles, all fields and all
forces are just different aspects of 4 dimensional spacetime. If this assumption can
be proven correct, it has a great deal of appeal. It would unify not only the forces of
nature, but also the 17 particles of the standard model would all be related because
they would be different excitations of the single spacetime field. Even the modeling
of molecules in physical chemistry would achieve a new level of conceptual
understanding. What is being proposed is that the fabled “theory of everything”
might actually be possible if it can be shown that physics has an underlying simplicity expressed in the proposed missing assumption: The universe is only
spacetime.
To understand how this assumption is plausible, it is first necessary to describe
the model of spacetime that allows spacetime to be the single building block of
everything in the universe. The usual descriptions of spacetime come from GR.
However, it is proposed that GR describes only the macroscopic properties of
4 dimensional spacetime. For spacetime to be the single constituent of everything, it
is necessary to expand the model of spacetime to include the small scale properties
of the vacuum obtained from QM. As John Archibald Wheeler said [1] “Empty
space is not empty… The density of field fluctuation energy in the vacuum argues
that elementary particles represent percentage-wise almost completely negligible
change in the locally violent conditions that characterize the vacuum.” It is this
energetic form of the vacuum that must be combined with the macroscopic properties of spacetime to obtain the proposed single building block of all particles,
fields and forces in the universe.
2 Zero Point Energy and the Spacetime Field
Taking John Wheeler’s advice, we will start by modeling the energetic vacuum
rather than initially attempting to model particles or forces. The quantum
mechanical properties of the vacuum goes by many names including zero point
energy (ZPE), vacuum energy, vacuum fluctuations, quantum foam, etc. Even
the uncertainty principle and the virtual particle pair formation/annihilation will be
attributed to these vacuum fluctuations. Field theory states that the vacuum can be
220
J.A. Macken