The 'ugly head' of the Cosmological Constant

Discussion in 'Astronomy, Exobiology, & Cosmology' started by Kaiduorkhon, Apr 19, 2007.

  1. Kaiduorkhon Registered Senior Member

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    Newton asserted ‘Hypothesis non fingo’. - ‘I make no hypothesis’. Yet, his entire, unarguably revolutionary Classical Mechanics was based on the hypothetical 'particle' that science has yet to assuredly accommodate. The ‘particle concept’ that dominates physics and the vast majority of colloquial human thought: has never been proven beyond hypothetical, quasi-scientific retainers. ‘The (rarely) indicted ‘particle’ Isn’t found ‘wrong’ here, but rather: resiliently incomplete; so as to aggressively exclude the incumbent role of the continuous field in the corporeal balance of material considerations. - K. B. Robertson

    "In the laboratory of Michael Faraday (1791 - 1867), who made many important contributions to the knowledge of electricity and magnetism, there is an interesting entry in 1849. It reads:

    'Gravity. Surely this force must be capable of an experimental relation to electricity, magnetism, and other forces, so as to build it up with them in reciprocal action and equivalent effect. Consider for a moment how to go about touching this matter by facts and trial.'

    "But the numerous experiments this famous British physicist undertook to discover such a relation were fruitless, and he concluded this section of his diary with these words: 'Here end my trials for the present. The results are negative. They do not shake my strong feeling of the existence of a relation between gravity and electricity, though they give no proof that such a relation exists.' " - George Gamow, GRAVITY

    (How Odd Is It?)

    "It is very odd that the theory of gravity, originated by Newton and completed by Einstein, should stand now in majestic isolation, a Taj Mahal of Science, having little of anything to do with the rapid developments in other branches of physics. Einstein's concept of the gravitational field grew from his Special Theory of Relativity, and the Special Theory was based on the Theory of the Electromagnetic Field formulated in the last century by the British physicist, James Clerk Maxwell (1831-79). But in spite of many attempts, Einstein and those who have followed him have failed any (gravitational) contact with Maxwell's electrodynamics... "Einstein's theory of gravitation was more or less contemporary with quantum theory, but in the forty-five years since they appeared, the two theories have had quite different rates of development. Proposed by Max Planck and carried forward by the work of Niels Bohr, Louis de Broglie, Erwin Schroedinger, Werner Heisenberg, and others, quantum theory has made colossal progress and evolved into a broad discipline that explains in detail the inner structures of atoms and their nuclei." - Gamow, GRAVITY


    "On the other hand, Einstein's theory of gravity remains to this day essentially as it was when he formulated it half a century ago. While hundreds, even thousands, of scientists study the various branches of quantum theory and apply it in many, many fields of experimental research, only a few persist in devoting their time and passion to further development in the study of gravitation. Can it be that empty space is simpler than material bodies? Or did the genius of Einstein accomplish everything that could be done about gravity in our time and so deprive a generation of the hope of further progress?" - George Gamow, GRAVITY, p. 136.


    "There is no space empty of field." - Einstein, *Contributiions to Science (*Ideas & Opinions)

    ("There is no 'empty space', only 'functional, metric space'." - K. B. Robertson, Apprentice to Albert - 'The Axe' - Einstein.)

    "Magnetism, gravity, and action at-a-distance have not lost an iota of their baffling mystery since Gilbert (before Newton 1642 - 1726)" - Arthur Koestler, THE SLEEPWALKERS.

    "Since the General Theory of Relativity implies the manifestation of physical reality as a continuous field, the concept of discontinuous particle cannot play a fundamental part, the ‘particle’ can only appear as a limited region of space in which the field strength and/or density of energy is particularly high." - Einstein, IDEAS & OPINIONS, p. 348

    "The combination of the concept of continuous field with that of mass-points discontinuous from space appears inconsistent. A consistent (total) field theory requires continuity of all elements of the theory, not only in time but also in space, and in all points in space. Hence the material particle has no place as a fundamental concept in a field theory." - Einstein, IDEAS & OPINIONS, p. 345

    "It is very probable that there is a hidden relation between gravity on the one hand and the electromagnetic field and material particles on the other, but nobody is prepared today to say what kind of relation it is. And there is no way of foretelling how soon any further important progress will be made in this direction." - Excerpted from the Preface to GRAVITY, by George Gamow.



    "According to General Relativity, the concept of space detached from any physical content does not exist. The physical reality of space is represented by a field." - Einstein, IDEAS & OPINIONS, p. 348

    ___________________

    THE 'UGLY HEAD' of the AGAIN and AGAIN BANISHED SINE QUA NON
    "Big Bang', 'SuperStrings', 'Dark matter', 'Quintessence' and 'New Age' etceteras,
    versus the 'out dated' 'ugly headed' Cosmological Constant, Lambda /\
    (A repelling force, unlike any known other, in that it becomes greater with increased distance. Re: acceleration.)
    “It is well known to students of high school algebra that it is permissable to divide both sides of an equation by any quantity, provided that this quantity is not zero. However, in the course of his proof Einstein had divided both sides of one of his intermediate equations by a complicated expression, which in certain circumstances, could become zero (‘at the slightest provocation’)...

    “In the case, however, when this expression becomes equal to zero, Einstein’s proof does not hold, and (mathematician) Friedmann realized that this opened a whole new world of time-dependent universes; expanding, collapsing, and pulsating ones.


    “Thus Einstein’s original gravity equation was correct, and changing it was a mistake. Much later, when I was discussing cosmological problems with Einstein, he remarked that the introduction of the cosmological term was the biggest blunder he ever made in his life. But the ‘blunder’, rejected by Einstein, and the cosmological constant denoted by the Greek letter /\, rears its ugly head again and again and again.” - George Gamow, GRAVITY, p. 270
     

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