GPS Support for the Infinite Spongy Universe Cosmology

OK, The Infinite Spongy Universe Cosmology is my layman hobby-model, and not a scientific model of cosmology. But is does predict that there is no reason to doubt that gravity waves are prevalent throughout the universe. Einstein predicted them as part of GR. One interesting link
I saw says this: "The search for gravity waves has been a century long epic. They are a prediction of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity but for years physicists argued about their theoretical existence. By 1957 physicists had proved that they [gravity waves] must carry energy and cause vibrations. But it was also apparent that waves carrying a million times more energy than sunlight would make vibrations smaller than an atomic nucleus."

There are gravity waves emitted, according to GR, whenever objects in spacetime interfere with each other's path. The gravity wave energy is supposed to be emitted as a result of such events. The issue is that gravity waves have a very tiny amount of energy relative to the particles involved in the event, and so are undetectable except for the greatest possible events; events associated with the collision of stars, neutron stars, or the formation of black holes. Hence, the target events of the gravity wave detectors are those massive events.

However, keep in mind that in GR, even the fall of an apple to the ground will emit a gravity wave. Maybe even the motion of an object through any medium will cause tiny gravity waves as particles in the moving object encounter particles in their path. No one has any interest in the fact that gravity waves might be emitted when even the tiniest particle interaction takes place, even when a particle is simply accelerated relative to another particle? What about the way GPS works?

The Global Positioning System, GPS, requires very accurate clock coordination in order to pin point locations being triangulated by satellites. I often see people say that the accuracy of GPS is proof of General Relativity.

I can see why the accuracy of GPS is evidence that identical clocks measure time at different rates when they are in relative motion to each other, and I know General Relativity predicts that kind of time measurement error between clocks in relative motion, and/or between clocks in different gravitational fields.

So what is physically going on when identical clocks that are in motion relative to each other measure time passing at different rates. Is time really passing at different rates, or is the energy density environment that the clocks are functioning in different, causing one clock to function slower and/or the other to function faster?

I'm posing the question, does motion increases the relative energy density of the environment? If so, does that slow the rate that particles function relative to particles at rest? If so, if clocks are composed of particles, wouldn't the accelerated clock's particles function slower than the rest clock's particles? If so, wouldn't the rest clock measure time to be passing faster than the accelerated clock? If so, isn't that the answer as to why clock rates in GPS satellites need to have relativistic time adjustment in order to remain accurate?

reply to post by BogieSmiles


As I understand, time dilates as a function of velocity. A photon of light has zero mass and time stops, regardless of the local gravity field. GPS are traveling 17,000 + MPH so the clocks get adjusted on that basis.

It seems by your idea, two identical clocks on opposite sides of the Earth should oscillate with respect to each other based on the orientation with the leading edge of motion through the local space. Am I understanding your idea correctly? Essentially, time dilation is due to a bunching up of space.

not saying the idea agrees with anything observed, I'm trying to understand the idea.

InverseLookingGlass
reply to post by BogieSmiles

 

As I understand, time dilates as a function of velocity.

Time dilates as a function of relative velocity of inertial frames of reference, as I understand it. That concept is theory specific though, and not part of my hobby-model. In my model, time simply passes, but the rate that identical clocks measure the passing of time varies relative to the gravitational wave energy of the local environments where the clocks are functioning. Relative acceleration and relative proximity to massive objects governs the gravitational wave energy density of the local environment or frame.

A photon of light has zero mass and time stops, regardless of the local gravity field. GPS are traveling 17,000 + MPH so the clocks get adjusted on that basis.

It seems by your idea, two identical clocks on opposite sides of the Earth should oscillate with respect to each other based on the orientation with the leading edge of motion through the local space. Am I understanding your idea correctly? Essentially, time dilation is due to a bunching up of space.

not saying the idea agrees with anything observed, I'm trying to understand the idea.

Cheers, and thanks. I may not be addressing exactly what you meant, but your characterization of photons, relative motion, and time stopping are theory specific, Special and General Relativity Theory, if I interpret what you are conveying. I'm talking about an environment where gravity waves are emitted by matter, and so the "medium of space" has a gravitational wave energy gradient at all points that is governed by the proximity and motion of all mass relative to that point.

Then, on that basis, the two identical clocks on the opposite side of the earth would be in essentially the same gravitational environment. The gravitational gradient at the surface of the earth would be nearly identical if the clocks were at rest relative to the surface of the earth, even on opposite sides of the earth. The two clocks would remain in sync if they were at the same elevation anywhere on the surface of the earth.

I think that the rate that particles themselves function is governed by that gravitational wave energy density. For example, the clock I am talking about would stop completely when the gravitational energy in the environment goes too high for particles to continue to function, like near a black hole. But in my model, under that scenario, time would not stop, only the ability of a clock to measure time would stop because the particles could no longer continue to function individually.

There are a lot of things we don't understand about gravity that are becoming clearer with the advances in ways to study the relationship between the galactic structure, the CMBR, and gravitational waves. Who doesn't know that the scientific community is trying to figure it all out, and make all the connections to tie in gravity waves, virtual particles that are said to create zero point energy, vacuum energy density, also known as the cosmological constant, and effects like the anomalous slowing of space probes like the Voyager and Pioneer anomaly, and the clock speed corrections to GPS.

What is that tie in? Most agree that there is a natural phenomenon of energy in space, and according to which theory you look at, that energy can differ by an order of magnitude of over 100 times.

The vacuum energy density (aka Cosmological Constant) though, is described as having an effect on gravity, determining if it is stronger or weaker than dark energy. If the cosmological constant is high (positive), the expansion of the universe will continue to accelerate, and if it is low (negative), it will slow to a stop or turn and collapse (I think that is the way it goes), according to GR.

So If there are gravitational waves permeating space, as GR seems to say there should be, it certainly could be an explanation, or at least an alternative to the concept of zero point energy or virtual particles popping into and out of existence faster than the eye can see, or maybe even to the question of dark energy.

With the progress we are making, something is likely to be discovered that will reconcile the vast order of magnitude error between the various theories. Gravitational wave energy density might fill that bill. There is a chance to discover it and quantify it as a result of the search for gravity waves mentioned in the OP, from massive events that can be detected by the latest apparatuses.

That would be a great confirmation of the GR prediction, and at the same time would be experimental evidence that could lead to a better understanding of the possibility that every particle interaction emits its own super-tiny gravity wave. The energy of the tiny gravity waves from individual particle motion would be quite insignificant compared to the collisions of neutron stars, but then we would have evidence of an alternative explanation for the nature of the hidden source of energy in space.

In that last post, I contemplated the fact that dark energy is taken as an opposing force to gravity. Observations tell us that expansion wins out over gravity, i.e. dark energy is stronger than gravity, so as the separation of galaxies increases, variable forces shift to favor expansion, causing expansion to accelerate. The strength of the opposing forces changes over time as they play out.

Gravity can be thought of as an attraction between objects with mass which is stronger in close quarters and diminishes as distance increases, while dark energy could be thought of as a force driving objects with mass apart, which would get stronger relative to gravity as the distance increases. Thus they would be opposing forces that were not perfectly balanced.

What set of conditions would allow that kind of cosmology? The Cosmological constant, which is a concept of vacuum energy density, is based on there being one big bang, and everything in the universe being causally connected to that one event. That requires that the concept of vacuum energy density be modeled as a feature of that one Big Bang, and everything driving it must be contained within the space occupied by and connected to our Big Bang. We don't yet understand how that could work.

Wouldn't it be easier to understand dark energy if the Big Bang did not create space, and was not the beginning of the greater universe, but instead occurred in preexisting space?

When I think about what kind of force dark energy could be, it occurs to me that it could be the tendency for wave energy in space to seek an equilibrium state, where the wave energy density equalizes across mixed density space; a condition like that would exist in the preexisting space scenario of the Big Bang event. If so, the force of dark energy might be explained by the fact then high density wave energy in space from our Big Bang would spread out into low energy density space surrounding it, causing the energy density differential to begin to equalize by high expanding into low.

The result would be just what we observe, a trend toward energy density equalization which would result in the accelerating expansion and cooling of the hot dense Big Bang as it intrudes into the colder and less dense surrounding greater universe.

In that version of cosmology, the process of energy density equalization could be the cause the initial expansion of our observable universe, and could explain the mysterious dark energy. That is the scenario of cosmology that I am describing in my Infinite Spongy Universe thread.