According to The New Physics model, light photons and particles are created by the same process of concentrating a lot of energy in at a point in space. This creates a bubble in space according to the formula m = E ⋅ μ ⋅ ε (née E = m ⋅ c2).
We saw in the last post why particles like protons can’t travel at the speed of light, because they approach infinite gravitational mass. But we know light photons do travel at the speed of light. What’s the difference?
The difference seems to be whether or not there is an internal structure, like the quark structure in a proton. Because the light photon is formed with no internal structure, there is nothing that shortens in the direction of travel as the speed of the photon goes to the speed of light, so there is no increase in gravitational mass. So there is nothing to prevent the light photon from travelling at the speed of light in a vacuum.
You might ask: why is an internal structure needed? Why aren’t all particles just photons? The quarks provide the electrical charge in protons and neutrons. Without electrical charge we wouldn’t have atoms or chemical reactions; we wouldn’t have matter. Photons don’t have an electrical charge, so they don’t need quarks.
Proton bubbles have radius 757 times that of violet light, and 817 times that of red photon bubbles. So protons are much bigger bubbles than visible light bubbles. Conversely the wavelength of violet light is 452 million times the length of the proton’s wavelength; for red light this factor goes up to 546 million. So the first quantum layer of compressed space around visible light photon bubbles is much bigger than the one around protons.
Is there is a photon energy that makes such a big photon bubble that its wavelength is shorter than the radius of the bubble? If so, what happens?
It turns out that this happens when the photon bubble is made by energy that is 35% greater than the energy needed to make a proton (less its quarks.) Then the wavelength is down to the shortest wavelength of gamma rays normally detected: 9.3 x 10-16 meters. Such a gamma ray photon takes 1,260 MeV of energy to create, as opposed to the 933 MeV needed to make the proton bubble. With no electrically charged structure in the gamma photon, it can still move as fast as the speed of light.
Scientists have been looking at distant nebulas and have discovered gamma rays of higher energy than this. They believe they have evidence of gamma rays with energy up to 450 TeV. Such a gamma ray would have a “wavelength” much smaller (10,000,000 times smaller!) than the radius of the bubble. The compression of space around the bubble would be right up against the bubble for many quantum levels. No surprise then that these gamma rays are detected by treating them as particles, not waves.
Since they were discovered, physicists have said that light photons have no mass. But then what happened to m = E ⋅ μ ⋅ ε (née E = m ⋅ c2)? According to The New Physics, of course photons do have mass. They just don’t have an internal electrically charged structure. As a result, they can travel through space at the speed of light in a vacuum. But because they are a bubble in space with quantum levels, they are subject to gravitational attraction, momentum and inertia. Not because space is curved, but because their quantum levels are being merged with and hence pulled by those of the massive object. This is why they curve around massive objects like stars and black holes.
The New Physics does not contradict General Relativity. But just because General Relativity uses mathematics that model space as having curvature does not enforce a reality where space is curved. That model was just a gap filler until the real cause of gravity could be discovered (by The New Physics.) The tendency of physicists to attribute reality to their mathematical models is unfortunate. It has led physics down some dark, blind alleys, which is why a model that can unify the behavior of both small and large particles has eluded physics to this point.
The New Physics to the rescue!