The Connection Between
"String" Theory and the "Spacetime Map"
(revised Nov., 2010)
John A. Gowan
email:
jag8@cornell.edu
johngowan@earthlink.net
There are some interesting parallels between current ideas in "string" theory and my formulation of the "Spacetime Map". One of these parallels is the notion that our universe may be a "membrane" embedded in a higher-dimensional "bulk" universe or "multiverse". It is obvious that a simple version of this idea is actually demonstrated in the "Spacetime Map": for example, the "light line" is such a 4-dimensional "membrane" - encompassing everything that we can see of our universe, extending from the present moment back to its origin in the Big Bang. The remainder of the map, outside our light line (the 5-dimensional "bulk" universe), consists entirely of the 4-D "membranes" or "light lines" of all other possible observers. All these "membranes" have a common origin in the Big Bang, and all are causally and reciprocally connected (our past is their present, our present is their future, etc., and vice versa). (See: "A Spacetime Map of the Universe".) Our "light line" represents our current connection with the rest of the universe, and not just for light, but for all forms of energy traveling at "velocity c", including gravity.
Another parallel is found in the notion that the gravitons of string theory are free to move beyond the "membrane" of their origin into higher dimensional spaces and other membranes. This is roughly similar to my concept of the gravitational field as the spatial consequence of the intrinsic motion of time, in which time exits space at right angles to all three spatial dimensions, flowing into history or historical spacetime. In my view, the spherical, accelerated collapse of space which we experience as the action of a gravitational field is caused by the intrinsic motion of time (the entropy drive of bound energy or matter), moving into the historic, causal domain of spacetime (the "bulk" universe of historical spacetime), and pulling space along behind it. (See: "The Creation of Time from Space".) Space collapses and self-annihilates at the center of mass, or the point-like beginning of the time line, leaving behind a new temporal residue, the metric equivalent of the annihilated space. The intrinsic motion of this new temporal unit continues the endless entropy-driven cycle. Here the "graviton" is a quantum unit of time or temporal entropy, moving from its origin in the "membrane" or "light line" of the present moment to the "bulk" universe of historic spacetime, the conserved information domain of matter's "causal matrix". Gravity self-annihilates at the center of mass, and does not follow time into the historical dimension. Hence there is no "leakage" of gravity into other dimensions in the the "Tetrahedron Model"; the weakness of gravity is entirely attributed to the tangential position of matter with respect to its historical conservation domain, the "eternal now" of matter's "present moment" in spacetime.
Unlike string theory, the weakness of gravity is not attributed to its dilution in the "bulk" universe; gravity is weak because it does not require much energy to create time from space - or equivalently - bound energy does not require much time to serve as its entropy drive. This circumstance is because matter is only tangentially associated with its historic entropy domain; matter exists only in the "present moment", not in the historic causal domain of information created by its entropy drive, time. This is in marked contrast to free energy, which fully occupies the conservation domain (space) created by its entropy drive, the intrinsic motion of light. For example, we can see all the way to the "Big Bang" (along the light line), but we cannot see even one second into our own history (along the time line).
In another sense, one can view the weakness of gravity as reflecting the ratio of the efficacy of spatial vs temporal entropy - the dissipation of the energy of light vs the dissipation of the energy of atoms (the latter as in proton decay). Indeed, when g = c, as in a black hole, we have reason to believe that proton decay is commonplace, while the entropic dissipation of light's energy ceases, reversing the usual enervating roles of spatial vs temporal entropy. (See: "The Half-life of Proton Decay and the 'Heat Death' of the Universe".)
Put another way (as usual, one can view such a fundamental, foundational relationship from several points of view), only a small amount of "strong" spatial entropy drive is required (per given mass) to provide the necessary amount of "weak" temporal entropy drive, so only a small amount of space need be annihilated - resulting in a small gravitational flow. Just as c establishes (gauges) the metric equivalency (per given dimension) between space, time, and free energy, so G establishes (gauges) the entropic equivalency (per given mass) between space (S), time (T), and bound energy (m):
-Gm(S) = (T)m.
In my view (the "Tetrahedron Model"), gravity is the conversion force (in either direction) between the entropy drives of free and bound energy, the intrinsic motions of light and time, and the weakness of gravity (the tiny magnitude of the gauge constant "G") reflects the small energetic difference between the symmetric spatial entropy drive of free electromagnetic energy (the intrinsic motion of light) and the asymmetric historical entropy drive of bound electromagnetic energy (the intrinsic motion of time). The two entropy drives are intimately connected because the intrinsic motion of light is actually caused by the implicit presence of time (frequency x wavelength = c), and so (on the microscopic level of quantum mechanics) the magnitude of -G is due to the small energetic difference between implicit time (S) and explicit time (T):
(S) - (T) = -G.
(See: "Gravity Diagram No. 2".) Time is created from space; the gravitational constant "-G" gauges the cost of the conversion - it requires energy to convert a symmetric entropy drive to an asymmetric entropy drive, hence "G" acquires a negative sign (gravity is negative "entropy energy", equivalent to "temporal energy", a form of negative inertial or metric energy, causing the implosion rather than the explosion of the spacetime metric). In the sense of dimensional dominance, one entropy drive is the inversion of the other, a reciprocal relation which also converts the all-way spatial entropy drive of free electromagnetic energy to the one-way historical entropy drive of bound electromagnetic energy - a result reminiscent of certain arcane mathematical operations in quantum mechanics.
Symbolically, the conversion of space and the drive of spatial entropy (S) (the intrinsic motion of light as gauged by "velocity c") to time and the drive of historical entropy (T) (the intrinsic motion of time, also gauged by "velocity c" - as the duration required by light to traverse a given distance), can be (qualitatively) represented by the "concept equation":
-Gm(S) = (T)m;
-Gm(S) - (T)m = 0
For the functional/conservation role of gravity,
see: "The Double
Conservation Role of Gravity";
Concerning the weakness of gravity, see: "The Half-life of
Proton Decay and the 'Heat Death' of the Cosmos";
Concerning the transformation of space into time, see: "The
Conversion of Space to Time";
Concerning gravity and the 4 forces of physics, see: "Symmetry
Principles of the Unified Field Theory";
For a general description of gravitation, see: "Gravitation,
Entropy, and Thermodynamics"; and: "A Description of
Gravitation".
See also: "The
'Tetrahedron Model' vs the 'Standard Model' of Physics: A
Comparison"
Links:
email:
jag8@cornell.edu
johngowan@earthlink.net
