By Robert M. Hartranft, Jr., Consulting Engineer, Simsbury, CT 06070
Scott W. Hartranft, Test Engineer, Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton, OR 97077

 
Version date: 15 October 2011

A note to unsuspecting readers --

The model proposed here is radically different from the current Standard Model. It postulates the presence of "negative mass matter" (or equivalently, negative energy) in precisely the same amount as ordinary, positive mass matter, so that the total mass of the universe is, always has been, and will forever be zero. In return for this postulation, the model runs nicely without awkward constructs like cosmic inflation, dark energy, or naked singularities, Better yet, it has a cheap, quick verification test, and it predicts the large cosmic voids and increasing rate of expansion in a natural way. Accelerating expansion is a major conundrum for the Standard Model: its discoverers won the most recent Nobel in physics. We believe that this model is unique in making accelerating expansion an inevitable and natural result. Be brave - one tough conceptual hurdle and you're in a much more symmetric and understandable universe.

Introduction

It is common knowledge that there are two kinds of electrical charge: positive and negative, equal and opposite.

And two kinds of magnetic poles, usually called north and south, but again, equal and opposite.

And two kinds of rotation around any given axis, usually called clockwise and counter-clockwise, but yet again equal and opposite.

That same pattern of balanced positive and negative values holds for every physical characteristic with the apparent exception of mass/energy, which seem to have only positive values. We hypothesize here that negative values are equally real, and offer "negative mass matter" and "cancellation" for the negative mass particles and the elimination process with the corresponding positive mass particles.. (Note that ordinary anti-matter is very much positive mass, as demonstrated by the annihilation of an electron and a positron to produce two 0.51 Mev gamma rays. A positive mass electron and a negative mass electron would cancel to nothing.)

A briefer history of time

In this model, the creation event produces precisely equal amounts of positive mass matter and negative mass matter, meaning no change in the total mass present. Einstein contributes that the total energy is also zero:

E = mc2

Newton contributes that positive mass matter attracts positive mass matter, and negative mass matter attracts negative mass matter, but positive mass matter repels negative mass matter:

F = Gm1m2 / r2

The net gravitational force is thus zero, allowing the extremely crowded nuclear conditions to produce a Big Bang, followed by early anisotropy as regions of positive mass matter and negative mass matter segregate. There will be an immense number of such early regions because a perturbational region of majority positive mass matter is necessarily accompanied by a region of majority negative mass matter on its boundary, which it will repel, causing widespread stirring of the early universe. Spin evident in even early galaxies is another result.

We believe that these conditions clearly favor smaller agglomerations over larger agglomerations, resulting in many short-lived high positive mass or negative mass stars, which will produce a correspondingly large population of positive mass black holes and negative mass black holes. These are likely the dark matter so puzzlingly undetected in current surveys. As gravitational consolidation of like matter proceeds, the black holes toward the center of a proto-galaxy will consolidate into a supermassive black hole, as observed.

As time progresses, the universe will consist of two concentric spheres, one positive mass matter and one negative mass matter, each now about 28 billion light-years in diameter. Large parts will be bordered by regions which repel them, since they would otherwise have merged. Accordingly, as observed, they will accelerate outward. The visible positive mass matter (including everything heretofore considered as real, including at least author Scott) will be arranged in forms which appear to have large gaps, here understood as locations populated by negative mass matter stars and galaxies.

Quantum gravity

We hypothesize that gravitons emitted by positive mass matter are compound particles: a positive mass particle paired with, but slightly leading the corresponding negative mass particle, thus having zero net mass, energy, and momentum, and randomly emitted by "source" mass continuously. When such a graviton reaches a "distant" mass, it causes the distant mass to emit a positive mass particle along the direction of the graviton, and the corresponding negative mass particle back toward the source mass, all somewhat in the manner of a laser. Both the positive mass particle and the negative mass particle will have momentum (p = mv) opposite the direction of the source mass, causing recoil toward it. This provides local conservation of momentum in gravitational orbits, as expected.

A symmetric process occurs with gravitons from negative mass matter, which we hypothesize to have a leading negative component.

Black holes, be they positive mass or negative mass, are simply regions of extremely high gravity in this model, the mechanics of gravity preventing any singularities.

Of currently known particles, neutrinos best fit the characteristics of half gravitons. Note that the incident graviton proceeds onward, explaining the infinite range of gravity and the lack of gravity shielding. Like photons, which carry the electromagnetic force but which do not themselves experience the electromagnetic force, gravitons do not themselves experience gravity.

Newtonian mechanics and Relativistic effects

Newtonian mechanics are consistent with this model. This holds for large objects like the earth, but also for individual particles like protons or electrons because they are still immense compared to Planck scale [10-35 meters]. Inertial mass and gravitational mass are identical because they result from the same fundamental process: self-gravity in one case, external gravity in the other.

Another important illustration is that for a body at rest, a random perturbation in location will cause it to interact with more self-emitted gravitons moving in that direction and fewer moving the opposite direction, thus re-centering it.

Gravitons are zero mass particles in this model and presumably travel at the speed of light. As positive or negative mass speeds approach the speed of light, the probability of interaction appropriately increases, providing relativistic mass change.

Inexpensive verification tests

If an optical or radio telescope happens to point at a negative mass galaxy, the negative mass photons should cause a stable dip in the flux of corresponding positive mass photons at that location by cancellation. This data may already be in hand, needing only analysis, which we earnestly solicit.

Ring images of distant galaxies formed by gravitational lenses should be fuzzy rather than sharply defined.

Who did what

Scott had the breakthrough ideas. Robert worked out the details described here, with many still to go. Robert is Scott's father. Both are graduates of Cornell University: Robert in Engineering Physics in 1966, and Scott in Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2001.