(revised Feb., 2008)
John A. Gowan
http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/jag8/index.html
There is nothing so valuable as a fresh perspective.
Contents:
I include in this section a discussion of the global vs local gauge symmetry model for each force. It is in the invariance of charge as translated between global and local metrics and energy states by the field vectors of the forces that a synthesis between the "Tetrahedron Model" and the "Standard Model" of "establishment" physics can be made, at least in terms of symmetry conservation and Noether's Theorem.
Electric Charge
The charges of matter are the symmetry debts of light. Charge (and spin) conservation is a temporal form of symmetry conservation. Forces generated by matter's charges are the demand for payment of the symmetry debts they represent. Noether's theorem is the formal theory addressing the conservation of the symmetry of free electromagnetic energy (radiation, light). Charges are quantized to help protect their values from inflation or deflation over time by entropy or relative motion in spacetime; otherwise, charge conservation would have little meaning. This is also the reason why matter must be separated and protected from the expansive or enervating effects of its entropy drive, time. Matter does not participate in the expansion of its causal information matrix, the historic domain of spacetime; matter maintains a tangential position with respect to history, existing only in the "universal present moment". (See: "The Time Train".) Magnetic forces are also instrumental in protecting the invariance of electric charges in relative motion. (See: "Global vs Local Gauge Symmetries and the Tetrahedron Model".)
We do not ordinarily realize that the symmetry of energy is conserved as well as its total amount, but it has been known for a long time that this must be true. In a famous theorem, Emmy Noether proved mathematically that in a multicomponent field, such as the electromagnetic field (or the metric field of spacetime), wherever there is a symmetry one also finds an associated conservation law, and vice versa. This theorem has become the mathematical basis ("group theory") for modern efforts to unify the forces. In the model presented here, I trace the unity of the forces back to their origins as the conserved debts of light's broken symmetry. (See: "Emmy Noether: A Tribute to her Life and Work").
Charges arise naturally from the process of symmetry breaking. When virtual particle-antiparticle pairs are created from light, each member of the pair carries various charges which function to ensure instant and successful annihilation, reconstituting the light from which they were created. Since light itself carries no charges, it can only create particle pairs whose charges balance, cancel, or neutralize each other, summing to zero. The electric charge is prototypical of this effect.
Initially, all massive elementary particles are created in particle-antiparticle pairs with equal but opposite electric charges (among others) summing to zero. Opposite electric charges attract each other powerfully, and at long range, allowing the particles to find each other anywhere in space and recombine, motivating an annihilation reaction which returns their bound energy to light, conserving the symmetry of the free energy which created them. Since photons, or light quanta, are the field vectors (force carriers) of electric charge, we see light actively protecting its own symmetry in matter-antimatter annihilation reactions, through the forces generated by electric charge. Finally, because the electrical annihilations of virtual particles are caused by photons traveling at velocity c, virtual particles are created and destroyed within the Heisenberg time limit imposed upon virtual reality. Virtual particles do not live long enough to exist in "real" time, and hence they also, like the light which created them, cannot produce a gravitational field.
When one member of a particle-antiparticle pair is isolated, as by the asymmetric decay of matter-antimatter leptoquark pairs during the Big Bang, the conserved charges of that isolated particle, which were intended to motivate and facilitate an annihilation reaction with its antimatter partner, are simply "hung" in time. The isolated particle is one-half of a symmetric particle-antiparticle pair, one-half of light's symmetric particle form, and its uncanceled but conserved charges are one-half of light's symmetry-keeping forces. These charges can therefore be fairly characterized as the "debts" or asymmetric remnants of light's broken symmetry.
The charges of matter are the symmetry debts of light. Light has global symmetry; charges are a local transformation of light's global symmetry. Local symmetry is global symmetry in a temporally conserved form. Charge-neutral, cold, atomic matter represents a "ground state" of local symmetry. Gravity is the only charge of matter that cannot be neutralized - because of gravity's double conservation role as both an entropy debt and a symmetry debt of light. The entropic component (time, history) of the gravitational charge must continuously increase, until it is satisfied by the return of bound to free energy (as in the stars).
While electric charge is always associated with mass, it is independent of the quantity of mass; the three leptonic particles electron, muon, and tau, for example, have vastly different masses but carry the same electric charge. Electric charge is not associated with bosons which move with intrinsic motion c, such as the gluon, photon, or graviton. There is definitely a major, general asymmetry associated with the loss of light's intrinsic motion which electric charge is powerfully guarding against, and we would like to distinguish it from the asymmetry associated with the gravitational charge. The gravitational constant (G), the electromagnetic constant (c), and the magnitude of electric charge (e), are all invariant; their values are independent of the quantity of energy they are associated with.
The asymmetry I single out as the cause of electric charge is dimensional - light is 2-dimensional, mass is 4-dimensional. Light lacks the x, t dimensions of bound energy, as Einstein discovered. The jump from 2 to 4 dimensions in the conversion of light to particles (or bound to free energy) is a general loss of symmetry, since the 4th dimension inevitably includes time, which is an asymmetric, one-way dimension. It is this particular asymmetry, time, which electric charge protects against. Electric charge, through matter-antimatter annihilations, protects light's dimensional symmetry by preventing light from devolving into matter, gravitation, and the asymmetric time dimension which is matter's entropy drive and causal relation. Electric charge is not related to the quantity of mass because the dimensional asymmetry of time applies equally to all 4-dimensional massive forms, irrespective of magnitude. Like most symmetry debts, electric charge is a charge of "quality" not "quantity". Raw energy debts (mass, momentum) are "quantity" debts. Gravity is unusual in that it partakes of both, as gravity is both an entropy (quantity) and a symmetry (quality) debt of light - see below.
From the global vs local gauge symmetry viewpoint, the magnetic field of a moving electric charge constitutes the local symmetry "current" (the compensatory component of the field vector), that translates the relative motion of an electric charge into an electrical form (magnetism) that does not affect - and hence protects - the invariant magnitude of its source. The electric charge is the global symmetry state, invariant and universal, independent of the mass of any carrier (such as the electron or proton), and likewise invariant with respect to relative motion - thanks to the magnetic field. In a similar fashion, the magnetic component of an electromagnetic wave compensates the electric component of the wave, rendering the photon (light) electrically neutral and invariant with respect to charge.
Because charges represent symmetry debts which must be paid in full upon demand (as for example when they annihilate with an antiparticle or neutralize an anticharge), symmetry conservation and charge conservation would have little meaning if such debts were inflated or diminished by entropy, age, gravitation, or relative motion. Therefore, all four forces have some compensatory component in their field vectors which act to preserve the invariance of the original, global values of charge as they are translated and transferred to new or material carriers, or otherwise interact with the relative and variable realm of matter.
In the case of the electromagnetic force, the local compensatory component of the field vector (the photon or electromagnetic quantum) is the magnetic field; in the case of gravitation, the analogous component is time (in which the field vector of gravitation is taken as spacetime); in the case of the strong force, it is the color-anticolor composition of the gluon field (producing the permanent confinement of quark partial charges to whole quantum charge units); in the case of the weak force, it is the mass of the IVBs and the particle-antiparticle composition of the alternative charge carriers in their virtual modes.
Another example is provided by the Doppler effect. Here the frequency or color of light changes in response to relative motion, leaving the velocity of light invariant. In this case, however, no projective force such as magnetism is produced, since c is a metric gauge, not an electric charge. Hence the metric parameters of the wave are affected, frequency (time) and wavelength (space), rather than the electrical parameters of the wave. In the gravitational Doppler effect, we again find only a metric effect. Magnetic effects due to relative motion can be referred to an even more fundamental level of compensatory flexibility in the dimensions of the spacetime metric, the "Lorentz Invariance" of Einstein's "Interval" and Special Relativity, protecting the invariance of velocity c, causality, charge, symmetry conservation, and energy conservation.
Gravitational Charge
In row 2 we emphasized the gravitational conservation role with respect to entropy, the creation of matter's time dimension, and the conservation of energy (raw energy conservation). Here in row 3 the gravitational role emphasized is with respect to the "location" charge, and the asymmetric distribution of matter in spacetime (symmetry conservation). The two major conservation roles of gravitation (entropy and symmetry) are due to the role of velocity c as the entropy and symmetry gauge of free energy.
Gravitation is a dimensional or "spacetime" charge, at once the most common and familiar, but perhaps the most mysterious and intractable to explain. The symmetry debt associated with gravitation is "location", representing the (broken) spatio-temporal distributional symmetry of light's "non-local" character. When light is converted to mass, light loses its intrinsic motion and hence its non-local symmetric energy state. Whereas light (in its own reference frame) is everywhere simultaneously within its conservation domain (light's Interval = 0), mass has "intrinsic rest" and acquires a time dimension (via its gravitational charge) and a positive Interval. The distributional symmetry of light's energy within spacetime is therefore broken; mass is a concentrated lump of undistributed energy with a specific location in spacetime. The location of matter is actually identified energetically and inertially in terms of both the quantity and density of bound energy by the warped metric produced by the gravitational field of mass. Whereas light is 2-dimensional, mass is 4-dimensional; the acquisition of the extra dimensions, especially time, identifies the spacetime coordinates and specific location of immobile mass-energy.
But the gravitational charge is unusual in that it is more than just a symmetry debt; unlike electric charge, color, or number, gravity is also the entropy debt of light. The gravitational force creates time and spacetime (bound energy shares spacetime with free energy as a compound conservation domain), converting space to time, via the annihilation of space and the extraction of a metrically equivalent temporal residue. Gravity and time induce each other: they are primordial expressions of entropy in matter. -Gm = the negentropic energy of mass, the energy associated with the time dimension of bound energy (T)m. The complexity of gravitation is due to the fact that its conservation function addresses both the first and second laws of thermodynamics (through time, causality, and entropy), as well as symmetry conservation (through the "location" charge and the positive Interval), simultaneously. The active principle of the gravitational "location" charge is time, which is both a symmetry (4-D location) and an entropy (intrinsic dimensional motion) debt. It is gravitation's entropic character that causes it to so aggressively and relentlessly pursue its symmetry conservation agenda (the conversion of bound to free energy, as in stars) - unlike electric charge, for example, which is only a symmetry debt and is readily neutralized. (See: "The Double Conservation Role of Gravitation".)
Think of the round, full Moon and the Sun; although they are of the same apparent size in the sky, they illustrate for us the vast difference (and apparently opposite reactions) characteristic of the two great conservation roles of gravity. The Moon illustrates gravity's proximate entropy (and hence energy) conservation role (the conversion of space to time); the Sun demonstrates gravity's ultimate symmetry conservation role (the conversion of bound to free energy).
Gravity is a collapsing spatial wave centered on a massive particle whose dynamic is supplied by the intrinsic motion of time, the entropy drive associated with the bound energy of the particle. The collapse of space produces a metrically equivalent temporal residue, whose entropic march into history collapses more space in an endless self-regenerating cycle. (See: "The Conversion of Space to Time".) The temporal entropy drive thus supplied to matter is the conserved entropy drive of the free energy which originally created the annihilated space - the transformed intrinsic motion of light. The temporal entropy drive of matter is not quenched until it succeeds in returning bound energy to its original free state, as seen in stars and via Hawking's "quantum radiance" of black holes, fulfilling the mandate of Noether's Theorem regarding the conservation of light's symmetric non-local energy state. This is the gravitational pathway of symmetry conservation, employing the engine of (temporal) entropy. The electrical pathway (of symmetry conservation) is via chemistry and matter-antimatter annihilations, and the strong and weak force pathways are through particle fusion, fission, and proton decay - all with the same end, the conservation (restoration) of light's symmetric energy state.
Global and Local Gauge Symmetry in Gravitation: Symmetry Conservation
In the gravitational case (which is essentially that of the spacetime metric), the global symmetry is characterized by space and the non-local distribution of light's energy. Light's "Interval" = 0, and light has no time dimension or "x" dimension (in the direction of propagation). Having no time or distance parameters, light has forever to go nowhere: the result is that light is everywhere within its spatial conservation domain simultaneously. All spatial coordinate positions in space are equivalent to light; light favors no particular "location". This is light's global symmetry condition of non-locality, the consequence of light's intrinsic motion or spatial entropy drive, "velocity c".
However, light's symmetric spatial distribution does not hold for matter, the central player (with time and gravitation) in the local gauge symmetry. Matter is a concentrated, immobile lump of bound energy with no spatial distribution, and with no intrinsic spatial motion. The "Interval" of matter is always greater than zero, due to the explicit presence of the time dimension. While matter is the local energy form (in contrast to global light), time is the local dimension (in contrast to global space). The "location" charge of gravity responds to the broken symmetry of light's non-local energy state as represented by matter (or any form of bound energy). The gravitational "location" charge identifies the position, magnitude, and density of any violation of free energy's distributional symmetry, such as immobile mass-matter. The active principle of the gravitational "location" charge is time. Time specifies the 4-dimensional position of matter in an ever-expanding, entropically driven spatial universe: "here and now". A gravitational charge specifies an energetically and inertially preferred location in spacetime (the center of mass, the present moment).
The intrinsic motion of the entropic time dimension (time is produced by the quantum mechanical and gravitational collapse of space) pulls space along into the point-like beginning of the time line, leading into the historic domain. Space self-annihilates at the point center of mass, leaving behind a metrically equivalent temporal reside, which also marches off into history, repeating the endless, self-feeding entropic cycle. Meanwhile, all material objects are carried toward the gravitational center of mass by the flow of space, resulting eventually in huge astronomical accumulations of matter (planets, stars, galaxies), in which bound energy is returned to its symmetric (and spatially entropic) form of light by such processes as nuclear fusion, the nucleosynthetic pathway of stars, supernovas, quasars, and the complete gravitation conversion of bound to free energy by Hawking's "quantum radiance" of black holes.
This is the symmetry conservation role of gravitation as distinct from its energy conservation role discussed in row 2 (above). Here in row 3, we focus on the non-local distributional symmetry of light's energy and light's zero "Interval" as consequences of light's intrinsic motion (following from the suppression of time by the metric symmetry gauge "velocity c"). In row 2, we focused on the entropic role of light's intrinsic motion, expanding and cooling space, and the entropic role of the gravitational production of time, conserving light's spatial entropy drive in the form of matter's temporal entropy drive. Time also conserves the energy accounts of matter in relative motion, protects the causal linkages of matter (and the invariance of matter's "Interval"), and creates historic spacetime, the conservation domain of matter's causal information "matrix" or network.
The principle of charge invariance in the gravitational case is found in the invariance of the "Interval" and "causality". Massless light is non-local, atemporal, and acausal; massive matter is local, temporal, and causal. When light or free energy is transformed to matter or bound energy, the invariant, zero "Interval" or non-local symmetric energy state characteristic of light is transformed by gravity into the equally invariant but positive "Interval" of matter. This transformation accords with the symmetry-conserving mandate of Noether's Theorem, and the energetic necessity to conserve local matter's causal linkages and temporal relations.
The flexibility and interchangeability of time with space are necessary to the invariance of matter's Interval - as per Einstein's Special Relativity. Again, relative motion is involved (in matter), rather than absolute motion (in light). Relative rather than absolute motion requires flexible dimensions to maintain the invariance of matter's Interval: time is the metric analog of the magnetic field of electric charge. Moving clocks run slow; the effect of relative motion upon the local clock rate varies with velocity ("Lorentz Invariance"), just as the strength of a magnetic field varies with the relative velocity of an electric charge.
The tenacious gravitational charge associated with the positive Interval of matter (the "location" charge whose active principle is time) will not be satisfied until matter is finally returned to light. Once this symmetry restoration (conservation) is accomplished (as in stars), time and the gravitational field vanish, as light has neither.
Energy conservation within a temporal, relative, and local metric (as gauged by the universal gravitational constant G), rather than within a spatial, absolute, and global metric (as gauged by the universal electromagnetic constant c), is the local gauge symmetry "ground" state of row 2 (raw energy and mass conservation). Planet Earth, and the Earth-Moon orbital system, are typical examples of this quiescent, gravitational "ground state" of local symmetry and energy conservation - comparable to the electrically quiescent ground state of cold, charge neutral, atomic matter. On the other hand, "location" charge and symmetry conservation in terms of the restoration of light's non-local symmetry by the gravitational conversion of mass to light, is a topic for row 3 (symmetry and charge conservation). Our Sun is a typical example of this active gravitational stage, a completed "circuit" of symmetry conservation - comparable to the weak force radioactive decay of atoms, and the strong force fusion of compound nuclei. See: "Currents of Symmetry and Entropy"
Gravitation produces both an energy-conserving and symmetry-conserving local temporal metric for matter (gauged by G), derived from, imposed upon, and conserving the global spatial metric of light (gauged by c). In both cases, time is the compensating and variable local gauge symmetry component of the gravitational field vector (spacetime or the graviton). Time conserves energy, entropy, causality, and the Interval on the one hand, while simultaneously conserving symmetry by identifying the coordinate position, magnitude, and density of bound energy on the other. The latter information (provided in the inertial terms of an energetically preferred spacetime "location charge"), results in the eventual conversion of mass to light, as in the stars. Gravity accomplishes the transformation of a global spatial metric to a local temporal metric (and back again) by the gravitational annihilation of space and the extraction of a metrically equivalent temporal residue, followed by the gravitational annihilation of matter and the extraction of energetically equivalent light - as in stars and via Hawking's "quantum radiance" of black holes. (See: "Global and Local Symmetry in Gravitation".)
For a more complete discussion of the gravitational charge and its mechanism, see: "Entropy, Gravitation, and Thermodynamics" and "A Description of Gravitation".
(row 3, cell 3)
Strong Force Binding in Compound Atomic Nuclei
There are two types or structural levels of the strong force, one involving binding the individual quarks inside baryons via "color" charges and the exchange of gluons (discovered by Murray Gell-Mann and George Zweig (1964)), and the other involving binding nucleons (protons and neutrons) in compound atomic nuclei via "flavor" charge and the exchange of mesons (discovered by Hideki Yukawa (1935)). These are very different forces, even though both involve nuclear material and both are called "strong", and they have very different consequences: quarks are permanently confined, and can never escape the binding force of the gluon field; nucleons are tightly held, but given sufficient energy, can and do escape the grasp of the meson field (as in radioactive decay).
What is the conservation basis of the meson binding force of the compound atomic nucleus? It is evidently the simple fact that when nucleons are herded together in sufficiently close aggregations, they are able to exist in a lower bound energy state than when they exist singly. Just like poor college students, they find that living in groups is cheaper than living alone. And any condition or state that reduces bound energy and releases free energy is favored by the conservation laws, especially by symmetry conservation.
So what is it about the communal state of heavy nuclei that is so energetically favorable for the individual nucleon? It apparently has to do with the clouds of virtual particles which surround any real particle, and which constitute a part of the bound energy state or endowment of real particles.
The quark composition of a neutron is udd, that of a proton is uud+. The only difference between them is a single u or d quark, and these are very nearly the same in mass. In virtual reality, it is a relatively simple matter for a ud+ meson to change a neutron into a proton, and for a ud- meson to change a proton into a neutron (antiparticles underlined). Note how the ud+ and ud- mesons make a neat particle-antiparticle meson pair. Protons and neutrons, if they are sufficiently close together, will find themselves constantly being transformed into one another simply by the exchange of these mesons in their surrounding virtual particle fields. In fact, they can get rid of some of these virtual mesons if they are close enough to share them, and share also the energetic cost of their production and maintenance. Hence sharing these (very similar) virtual particle fields is a means of reducing their bound energy content, if these nucleons can come together closely enough and in suitable combinations. The (individually and collectively) reduced mass energy of the nucleons then becomes a binding principle or "glue" - any liberated energy must be replaced if the nucleon is to be made whole again and become free.
The most energy-efficient nucleon combinations are called alpha particles, or helium nuclei, consisting of 2 protons and 2 neutrons. I point out elsewhere that this is a "classic" 4x3 General Systems resonance or fractal combination - 4 nucleons each consisting of 3 quarks. (See: "Nature's Fractal Pathway".) The alpha particle is for some reason an especially stable nuclear configuration, and becomes the "brick" or standard building block of the stellar nucleosynthetic pathway. (See: "The Fractal Organization of Nature".)
As the compound atomic nucleus grows in size, there is a diminishing energetic return (in terms of the release of binding energy) with the addition of each new nucleon. This is because the shared field of virtual particles eventually becomes saturated - all the advantages and possibilities for sharing the burden of virtual particles have already been explored and exhausted. There's just no more room at the commune. Furthermore, the collective long-range electrical repulsive forces of the protons finally increase beyond the strength of the short-range binding energy of any individual new proton trying to join the party.
After the nucleus has grown to iron 26, fusion nucleosynthesis becomes endothermic - as much energy must be expended to break through the "front wall" of nuclear electrical resistance as is gained by the release of binding energy. However, given an external source of energy to surmount the initial barrier (such as gravitational acceleration), enough nuclear binding potential energy remains available to grow compound nuclei (in nature) up to uranium 92. Humans have created several dozen more trans-uranic heavy nuclei in accelerators, of which plutonium is the best known. Most are extremely short-lived.
As noted above, there are three "color" charges which are exchanged between quarks by the "gluon" field; gluons are composed of a color-anticolor charge pair. The constant "round-robin" exchange of the massless gluons (at velocity c) from one quark to another is the strong force mechanism which binds the quarks together. At the next higher level of nuclear structure, in compound atomic nuclei, protons and neutrons ("nucleons") are bound together by the exchange of virtual mesons, in which the nucleons swap "u" and "d" quarks in what amounts to a continual oscillation of identities. The binding energy of the meson and gluon fields is more efficiently utilized in heavy nuclei up to iron 56, resulting in the release of excess binding energy as the radiant output of nuclear fusion in stars. Beyond iron 56, element-building requires an input of energy, rather than producing energy. There is a strong resemblance between color and electric charge, suggesting that the strong force gluon field is possibly derived directly from the electromagnetic force (see below).
Quarks are sub-elementary particles, as we know from their fractional electric charges which are either 1/3 or 2/3 of the unit charge carried by the truly elementary leptons such as the electron. Allowed quark combinations always sum to zero or unit leptonic values of electric charge: the proton is +1, the neutron 0, mesons are 0, +1 or -1. The symmetry which the strong force is protecting is this quantum unit of electric charge, the elementary leptonic charge, and whole unit charges generally. If quarks were not confined as they are, there would be no way to annihilate or even neutralize their partial electric charges, or other partial charges they may carry (such as color and identity). Symmetry could not be restored and conserved if individual quarks roamed free. The strong force protects symmetry by confining these sub-elementary particles into whole quantum unit packages of charge which can be neutralized and/or annihilated by elementary unit anticharges. The strong force protects the quantum mechanical requirement of whole unit charge in the service of symmetry conservation.
If one were to fracture an elementary particle into three parts, but require that when it became "real in time" it must retain its "virtual" leptonic character in terms of whole quantum units of charge, one would need a confining force with exactly the characteristics of the strong force as produced by the gluon field of the color charge. And just as the quarks appear to be the remnant of a fractured lepton, so the gluon field appears to be the remains of a fractured photon - "sticky light" - the divided field vector of a shattered leptonic electric charge. Earlier we noted that the ability to assume electrically neutral internal configurations (as in the neutron or neutral leptoquark) was the fundamental reason why the baryon must be a composite particle, if it is to break the symmetry of the primordial particle-antiparticle pairs. (See also: "Proton Decay and the Heat Death of the Cosmos".)
The strong force represents a compromise between the necessity of cosmological symmetry-breaking and the requirement of quantum mechanical whole unit charge symmetry-keeping: the irresistible agenda meets the immovable principle. The force of the collision accomplishes the impossible, but via an accommodation - the "virtual" fracturing of an elementary particle with the permanent confinement of its quarks and partial charges.
The strong and weak forces (the "short range" particle or nuclear forces), form a symmetric-asymmetric force pair which is essential to the creation of matter. In this regard, they are curiously similar to the two "spacetime" forces, electromagnetism and gravitation (the "long range" forces). (See: "Diagram of the Spacetime and Particle Forces".)
The principle of "asymptotic freedom" illustrates the symmetry-keeping role of the strong force. As the quarks move apart, their partial charges increasingly threaten the symmetry-keeping function of whole quantum unit charges, and the strong force responds by strengthening its grip. Conversely, as the quarks move closer together, the threat to whole charge unit symmetry-keeping posed by the quark's partial charges diminishes, and the strong force relaxes.
Strong Force Global and Local Gauge Symmetry
Proton decay has never been seen, and we many fairly presume that it requires the mediation of the "X" IVB, a very massive particle, the "big brother" of the "W" IVB. The function of the "X" IVB is the same as that of the "W" IVB - to recreate the metric and energetic conditions in which the particles and transformations it now mediates were originally formed (leptoquark and baryon genesis in the "Big Bang" during the "GUT" era of strong and electroweak unification). Only in this way can the multiple conservation issues (of charge invariance and symmetry conservation) surrounding the partial charges of the quarks be resolved, which are analogous to, but even worse than, the conservation issues confronting the alternative charge carriers for which the "W" is required (because quark partial charges require the additional "gluon" field).
The gluon field, the field vector of the strong force, is composed of color-anticolor charges in every combination. The gluon's anticolor component is necessary to annihilate the quark's old color charge, allowing its replacement by the new color component. The analog of the magnetic field in the electromagnetic force, and time in the gravitational force, is the confining action of the gluon field, as it is confinement which restores the partial quark charges to whole quantum unit charges, protecting charge invariance and symmetry conservation. The field vectors of all the forces are their own antiparticles, either individually, or in sum. It is specifically this characteristic which allows the field vectors to communicate (in either direction) between the global realm of light (which is symmetric with respect to particles vs antiparticles), and the local realm of matter-only particles.
In the strong force, whole quantum unit (elementary) charges constitute the universally invariant global gauge symmetry (ultimately derived from the elementary leptons via the decay of the leptoquark), while the partial charges of the quarks represent the local gauge symmetry. The gluon field functions to combine and maintain the various partial quark charges (color, spin, electric, flavor) into whole quantum unit charges, which can be neutralized and/or annihilated by whole elementary charges, including those of the alternative charge carriers (leptons, neutrinos, and mesons). Neutral heavy elements, for example, represent the ground state of a local gauge symmetry achieved despite the various partial charges of the quarks, or the relative motion of the electron vs the proton, or the fact that the electron and proton are not each other's antiparticles, or the fact that compound atomic nuclei are composed of two different kinds of baryons.
The Weak Force: Lepton "Number" or "Identity" Charge
The leptonic charge is known as "number" charge. I prefer to call it "identity" charge, a name which better reflects its reason for existence. Photons (individual light quanta) are indistinguishable and anonymous. They are all alike, and hence form a symmetry of identity which I call "anonymity". Elementary particles, on the other hand, are not all alike; they are distinguishable between "species" and from the photon.
We know of three distinct elementary particles, comprising the leptonic spectrum or series: electron, muon, and tau, differing in their masses which increase (dramatically) from electron through muon to tau. Each has a specific neutrino associated with it, which functions as an alternative carrier of leptonic "number" ("identity") charge. (Neutrinos are the "bare" or "explicit" form of this charge, which is also carried in "hidden" or implicit form by the massive leptons). (See also: "The Weak Force: Identity or Number Charge").
The leptonic series has the appearance of a quantum mass series - that is, these elementary particles are always created with a specific, discreet mass and no other; there are no elementary massive particles in the gaps between their mass "slots", much like the discreet gaps between the rungs of a ladder, or the energy levels of atomic electron shells. The neutrino that is associated with each massive lepton is evidently the hallmark of the truly elementary particle (the sub-elementary quarks have no associated neutrinos).
It seems likely, however, that there is an undiscovered neutrino associated with the ancestral particle which gave rise to the quarks and baryons, which I assume to be the heaviest member of the leptonic series, the so-called "leptoquark". If we ever see proton decay, we would expect to see a leptoquark neutrino produced in the process. (The leptoquark neutrino is possibly the source of the "dark matter" or "missing mass" of the Universe - if neutrinos have mass at all.)
The lepton "number" or "identity" charge evidently facilitates particle-antiparticle annihilation reactions, identifies the several types of elementary particles, and by the handedness of neutrino spin neatly distinguishes matter particles from their antimatter counterparts (and so identifies suitable annihilation partners). Neutrinos also comprise a type of accounting system, recording the number and identity of elementary particles (or antiparticles) contained within the conservation domain of spacetime.
Identity or number charge plays a special role in the creation of the material universe. We can characterize the light universe, before the creation of matter, with just 2 numbers representing its symmetric charge state: Interval = 0, and Number = 0. After the creation of matter, both symmetries are broken and become positive: Interval > 0, and Number > 0. (Electric charge is zero both before and after the creation of matter, while color is an internal property of baryons, also summing to zero). The positive Interval represents gravitation and time, the positive number charge represents the weak force identity charge and particles. The metric Universe, the Universe of the dimensional conservation domains, responds to the positive number asymmetry by providing an asymmetric temporal entropy drive, an historic conservation domain for information and matter's causal matrix, and a compound conservation domain for both light and particles (spacetime), all through the quantum mechanical and gravitational conversion of space to time.
The universe manifests through the identity charge, as identity provides a basis for the interaction between the symmetric quark field (the leptoquarks), the leptonic alternative charge carriers (the neutrinos), and the asymmetric mediating field of the IVBs. It is through the identity charge that the IVBs recognize and separate leptoquark from antileptoquark, setting them upon separate and asymmetric decay pathways, breaking the symmetry of their particle-antiparticle pairs. (In a matter-antimatter pair of electrically neutral leptoquarks, one particle's identity charge is neutralized by its antineutrino, allowing it to decay, while (for unknown reasons) the other particle remains intact and unreactive.) Neutrinos are alternative carriers for identity charge, which allows this charge to be conserved or canceled without the presence of antiparticles (antileptoquarks), with their inevitable annihilation reactions. For a more complete discussion, see: "The Formation of Matter and the Origin of Information".
See also: "The Higgs Boson and the Weak Force IVBs" for a further discussion of the weak force in its full energy spectrum.
Weak Force Global and Local Gauge Symmetry
The role of the weak force is the most important in nature. It is the weak force that breaks the initial global symmetry of the light universe and matter-antimatter particle pairs, bringing the asymmetric, local, and temporal universe of matter into existence. But for the weak force, the universe would exist only as a cold spatial volume of ever-expanding and cooling electromagnetic waves.
Beyond its initial symmetry-breaking role (the details of which are still not understood), the weak force has the task of regulating the creation, destruction, and transformation of elementary particles: the quarks, leptons, and neutrinos.
It is especially important to understand that the weak force always operates in an asymmetric mode. Whereas the electromagnetic force also creates and destroys elementary particles, it does so only in matter-antimatter particle pairs; the weak force exclusively creates, destroys, or transforms single particles, which is the key to its unusual character. In order to perform its transformations, the weak force has to balance and neutralize charges. However, unlike the electromagnetic force, the weak force cannot directly use "real" antimatter particles to balance the charges of matter, for these would cause annihilations, not transformations (the weak force does use virtual antimatter particles for this purpose, however). For example, in the weak force decay of a neutron to a proton, the proton's positive electric charge is not balanced by an antiproton, but by the electrically negative electron.
We are nowadays so used to the electron-proton combination of neutral atomic matter that we tend to forget that this is a rather strange combination of particles: three quarks of two different flavors (uud) whose partial charges add up to the equivalent of a single leptonic charge. The proton's charge in turn is balanced by an electron's whole quantum unit negative charge in atomic orbit: 4 particles of three different kinds (ignoring the emitted but nevertheless indispensable electron antineutrino), which all sum exactly to neutrality, and what is more, are exactly equivalent to every other hydrogen atom ever made, regardless of when the particles were created or combined, the expansion of the cosmos, entropy, or any other vitiating (or enhancing) factor. How is such precise uniformity among so many different particles of such different ages and origins achieved? This is the task and the mystery of the weak force, for obviously, charge invariance and symmetry conservation requires nothing less than perfection in the creation and transformations of elementary particles and the charges they carry.
The field vectors of the weak force, the IVBs (Intermediate Vector Bosons) are unusual in that they are extremely massive particles, equal to about 80 proton masses, whereas the field vectors of the other forces are massless. It is just the mass of the IVBs that is responsible for the transformation and creation of elementary particles of precisely equivalent energy, mass, and charge, as compared to any other elementary particle. This equivalence protects charge invariance and symmetry conservation during particle transformations.
Although the electromagnetic force creates particle-antiparticle pairs within the local and contemporaneous metric which are obviously symmetry-conserving partners, the weak force must operate without antimatter to produce its transformations, using alternative charge carriers instead (leptons, neutrinos, mesons). How is the weak force to guarantee that these alternative charge carriers are: 1) the precise equivalent in terms of charge of a future, unknown charge partner which is not its antiparticle; and 2) the precise equivalent of all other charge carriers of its own kind? (For example, the electron created in the decay of a neutron to a proton must exactly balance the electrical charge of any other proton, meson, lepton, or other charge carrying particle, and also be the exact equivalent of any other electron ever created.)
To accomplish this seemingly impossible task without using antiparticles, the weak force uses the huge mass of the IVBs to recreate the initial matrix and energetic conditions in which these particles and transformations were formed during the early moments of the "Big Bang". In other words, the mass of the IVBs tells us that this was the energy density of spacetime when these particles were originally created and freely transformed, one into the other; nothing less than this energy density will suffice to create these particles plus produce these seamless transformations. The IVBs solve their equilibration problems by simply recreating the original conditions, in effect, going back to the original mold in which these particles and transformations were initially created. In is like going back to the Bureau of Standards to recalibrate our instruments, or printing money at the mint from only a single, original plate. This is why the IVBs are strictly quantized masses, so they can only recreate the exact energetic conditions under which these elementary particles and transformations were produced. Hence every elementary particle is born under identical conditions, whether in the "Big Bang" of cosmic birth, or subsequently in the "Little Bang" of IVB birth. Charge invariance and symmetry conservation is enforced and protected by the large mass of the IVBs and the Higgs boson. The role of the Higgs boson is to provide a scalar gauge for the mass of the IVBs, ensuring that the environment they create (which is a specific unified force symmetric energy state), and hence the particles they create, is always exactly the same. (See: "The Higgs Boson and the Weak Force IVBs".) The IVB mass is therefore the functional analog of the magnetic field of the photon, or of time in the gravitational field, or of the confining action of the gluons.
Although the IVBs as a group (the W+, W-, and Z) are their own antiparticles, virtual particle-antiparticle pairs of the alternative charge carriers (leptons, neutrinos, mesons) play a major role in facilitating weak force transformations among elementary particles. The large mass of the weak force IVBs essentially forms a bridge between the virtual particle-antiparticle pairs of the primordial dense metric and the "real" (temporal) particles of today, making the charges and particles of primordial "virtual reality" available for the transformation of contemporary "real" particles. The local gauge symmetry "current flow" is both ways: virtual particles transform real particles, and vice versa. Charge invariance and symmetry conservation is maintained and protected in these transformations by the large quantized masses of the IVBs. See various weak force papers cited in the Links section (below) for details of the weak force transformation mechanism. (See also: "Global and Local Symmetry in the Weak Force".)
Photons - The Electromagnetic Force and Electric Charge
The electrical symmetry debt can be repaid partially by neutralization with alternative charge carriers, or wholly by matter-antimatter annihilation, since unlike gravitation, electric charge is bipolar rather than monopolar (two-way rather than one-way). Whereas the gravitational symmetry debt can only be repaid by the conversion of mass to light, electric charge can be neutralized by its opposite matter charge, as well as annihilated by its antimatter charge. Electric charge acts to prevent the conversion of free to bound energy (as in the suppression of virtual particles via matter-antimatter annihilation reactions). Failing in this, it seems to have little further ability to restore symmetry, other than an eternal readiness to motivate an antimatter annihilation if the opportunity arises. Instead, electric charge contents itself with neutralizing opposite matter charges, confining them to small regions of spacetime, "paying down" its symmetry debt as far as it can. Conversely, gravitation does not act to prevent the formation of bound energy, but once matter is formed, seems to have a real "agenda" for its ultimate destruction - not "divide and conquer", but "collect and conquer". In this we discern the entropic character of gravitation, in contrast to the activity of any other charge or symmetry debt.
The field vector (force carrier) of electric charge is the photon, the quantum unit of light and the electromagnetic force. In the annihilation of matter-antimatter particle pairs, we see the photon protecting its own symmetry. Electric charge is bipolar, consisting of opposite charges which attract each other powerfully over an infinite range of spacetime. The strength of this arrangement is that it permits matter-antimatter pairs to find each other, no matter how great their spatial separation. The weakness of this arrangement is that electric charges can neutralize as well as annihilate each other. It is therefore possible for a composite particle like the baryon to arrange the partial charges of its quarks to a neutral electrical configuration, as in the neutron. It is just such an arrangement that is exploited by the weak force to produce the asymmetric decays of electrically neutral leptoquarks and create an excess of matter in the "Big Bang". Electrical neutrality is the fundamental reason why a composite particle (such as baryons composed of quarks) is necessary if matter is to be isolated from antimatter, breaking the primordial symmetric energy state of the Cosmos.
After the formation of matter, electric charge can do little to restore the symmetric state of energy because its force is quenched by its ability to neutralize itself. The net electric charge of the Cosmos is zero, both before and after the creation of matter. In chemical reactions, electric charge will drive toward the lowest bound energy state, but chemical releases of energy are insignificant compared with the total energy content of matter. Electrical annihilations of virtual matter-antimatter particle pairs continuously suppresses the manifestation of particles from the "vacuum".
Electric charge, however, in the form of the electron shell of atoms and the interplay of electric and magnetic forces, is instrumental in building a negentropic information pathway (with energy supplied mostly by gravitation) which culminates in biological systems and the rise of consciousness. In this, electric charge seems to be attempting to reconstruct the original connectivity of light, even if it cannot reconstruct its symmetry. The primordial system of light was not only a wholly symmetric, but also a wholly connected entity. Electric charge, whose field vector is the photon, can be thought of not only as a debt of light's dimensional symmetry, but also as a debt of light's dimensional connectivity, the holistic character of the primordial energy state. Hence electric charge seems to function as a "memory" of a preexisting state of connectivity and unity as well as symmetry. Similarly, we may see "beauty" as an emergent expression of symmetry conservation in the "Information Pathway" of biology. In purely abiotic terms, it is time that reconstitutes for matter the original connectivity of light. Free energy is connected by space, bound energy is connected by time (historic causality, "karma"). Time is extracted from space by matter's gravitational field. (See also: "DeBroglie Matter Waves and the Evolution of Consciousness".)
Although it cannot restore symmetry chemically, electric charge nevertheless attempts to reconstruct connectivity in material systems by means of a chemical (molecular) information pathway (connection via information in addition to time). For example, biology is nothing if not a web of interconnections, and through the evolution of conscious information systems, humans have not only become aware of the essential connectivity of the Cosmos, both intuitively and rationally, but are now engaged in the process of extending this physical web of connection between the planets of our solar system, and on into the galaxy. Significantly, through humanity, the biological Information Pathway has converged with the abiotic gravitational symmetry conservation pathway, converting bound to free energy through hydrogen fusion and the nucleosynthetic process. Hence, if we actually succeed in annihilating ourselves with hydrogen bombs, we can always blame the universal symmetry conservation agenda rather than our own stupidity. (See also: "The Information Pathway"; and "Chardin: Prophet of the Information Age".
Gravitons - Gravitation
If we are to believe Einstein, gravitons, the field vectors of gravitation, must connect directly to the dimensional structure of spacetime. This connection is attractive only, without a repulsive counterpart, as in electricity. The effect is to "warp" or "bend" spacetime, reducing the effective gauge of the local metric - the magnitude of the electromagnetic constant c. Time and space are affected in metrically equivalent terms. It may be difficult to imagine how anything could connect to something so intangible as a dimension, yet this is certainly the best explanation we have. And the dimensions are not so intangible when we encounter them through gravitational or inertial forces ("g" forces felt during acceleration); the intrinsic motion of time, the intrinsic motion of light, and gravitation itself can also be considered inertial forces in that they are all dimensional (metric) expressions of entropy, symmetry, or energy conservation.
A dynamical view of gravitational action is allowed by Einstein's equations, via his own "Equivalence Principle". We are free to view a reference frame as either at rest in a static negative gravitational potential (as on the surface of the Earth) or as accelerated in spacetime by an equivalent positive motive force (as in a rocket ship). Hence we can view gravitation as the accelerated motion of spacetime itself, rather than as a static, "warped", or "curved" metric field. It seems to me this dynamic view offers a physically simpler way to visualize gravitational action, and is heuristically more fruitful, leading to other insights as well.
The equivalence principle follows from the notion that we cannot distinguish between moving ourselves through spacetime (acceleration), or spacetime moving itself through us (gravitation). In the dynamic view, all objects fall with the same acceleration not because the static gravitational potential is the same but because they are all carried along in the same accelerated flow of spacetime. Similarly, velocity c and the local metric are reduced simply by the subtractive effect of the physical flow of spacetime; co-movers with the flow (free fall, orbit) are of course unaware of its motion - all the ordinary gravitational effects are as readily explained by one view as by the other - if we restrict our view to small scales. (See: "Extending Einstein's Equivalence Principle".)
"Quantum Radiance" and Black Holes
Like the other charges of matter, gravitation has a symmetry debt to pay, and like the other charges, if gravitation cannot pay off the debt outright, it will always move in that direction by at least "paying down" the debt as much as possible. Since an atom or a planet can have the same center of mass or "location", the gravitational concentration of massive particles reduces the scatter of individual "location" charges, confining them to as small a volume of spacetime as physically possible (the attractive principle of gravitation (-Gm), however, is simply the collapse of space caused by the intrinsic motion of time). (See also: "The Conversion of Space to Time".) If enough mass is accumulated, the fusion reactions of the nucleosynthetic pathway are initiated, converting a portion of the bound energy to light, a direct payment of the symmetry (and entropy) debt. However, nucleosynthesis can only go so far, as baryon number conservation prevents the great bulk of any stellar mass from converting to light. Nevertheless, gravitation drives on, collapsing the electron shells of atoms in "white dwarfs", and finally driving this "electron sea" into the protons, forming neutron stars, essentially gigantic atomic nuclei held together by gravitational forces. Still unsatisfied, if enough mass is present, gravitation collapses even nuclear matter to the singularity of a black hole, surely the most bizarre and fearsome object in the universe.
Black holes can convert much more of the bound energy of atoms to radiation than nucleosynthesis (20% vs 1% - see: Sky and Telescope, Jan. 2007, pages 43-47), including extracting energy from the rotational energy of the hole, from the gravitational potential energy of highly accelerated particles (including any relativistic increase in mass), and even from the binding energy of nuclear particles, which the intense gravitational field of the hole replaces.
In the creation of a black hole, gravitation reaches its symmetry-conservation goal, for as Stephen Hawking has shown, through the principle of "quantum radiance" the total mass of a black hole will eventually be converted to light. The defining feature of a black hole is that the gravitational acceleration of spacetime reaches the equivalent of the intrinsic motion of light. As in the venerable saying, "the extremes meet": matter began as light with intrinsic motion c; matter ends by itself achieving intrinsic motion c through the gravitational acceleration of spacetime, a total reversal of the roles of intrinsic motion and spatial vs temporal entropy. But this full circle regenerates matter as light again, an amazing story of purposeful and relentless symmetry conservation which no one would believe if Einstein's and Hawking's mathematics were not there to prove it (although the early stages of this process are plainly before our eyes in our own Sun).
Because the spatial entropy drive of light (intrinsic motion c) has greater symmetry than the one-way historical entropy drive of time (intrinsic motion T), Hawking's quantum radiance demonstrates that even the symmetry of entropy is conserved. It is symmetry conservation at every level and the ultimate expression of Noether's theorem that drives the evaporation of black holes. The event horizon of a black hole is a temporal entropy surface (The Bekenstein-Hawking theorem), displacing space somewhat as a ship displaces water, providing physical proof of the gravitational conversion of space and the drive of spatial entropy, to time and the drive of historical entropy. One reason we cannot see into a black hole is because there is no space to look into. The surface of the black hole is an expansion of the central dimensionless point which begins the time line, hugely enlarged; nevertheless, it remains spatially dimensionless. (See: "A Description of Gravitation".)
In thermodynamic terms, the conversion of light's entropy drive (light's intrinsic motion) to matter's entropy drive (time's intrinsic motion) reaches a limiting case in the black hole. Because at the Schwarzschild radius the inflow of space is already at velocity c, it is not physically possible to simply continue increasing the intensity of the field as matter is added to the hole. Therefore, the only accommodation possible for further mass inputs is to increase the size of the surface over which this maximum spatial flow is realized, resulting in the Hawking-Bekenstein theorem relating the entropy of a black hole to its surface area. Therefore black holes are somewhat larger than one might otherwise assume. (If two black holes of equal mass merge, the result will be a black hole with twice the surface area, not twice the volume.) Paradoxically, this effect does not reduce the critical density of the hole as it grows larger, because we are dealing with a time surface, not a spatial volume. Space is displaced by time, not by a competing spatial volume, which is where the ship displacement analogy fails. Since gravity is creating the time dimension for the mass of the hole, the constraint on the size of the entropy expression also applies to other related gravitational parameters. Hence the surface area of a black hole should be directly proportional not only to its entropy, but to its time dimension, its mass, and its total gravitational field energy as well. (See also: "Proton Decay and the 'Heat Death' of the Universe").
Gluons - The Strong Force: Fusion and Proton Decay
In addition to its important role in confining quarks to elementary whole-quantum charge units, the strong force contains an important internal symmetry. Each quark carries one color charge, which it swaps with its neighbors in a ceaseless round-robin exchange by means of an internal field of "gluons". Because the gluon field is composed of color-anticolor charges, it sums overall to zero color, a crucial charge symmetry.
Physically squeezing the quarks together has the effect of summing up the gluon field, so that as quarks crowd together, the strong force relaxes and the quarks move more easily with respect to each other, an effect known as "asymptotic freedom" (Politzer, Gross, and Wilczek: 2004 Nobel Prize for Physics). "In the limit", if the quarks are fully compressed, the color charge sums to zero and vanishes. This is the charge configuration of the leptoquark, and is the condition of "color symmetry" (color = 0) which is necessary for proton or leptoquark decay. Usually, quarks repel each other electrically and through other quantum mechanical forces (Pauli's "Exclusion Principle"); as quarks spread apart (increasing the threat to symmetry conservation and charge invariance posed by their partial charges), the color force becomes explicit, limiting their expansion. Because the color charge is conserved, the weak force cannot cause baryon decay while the color charge is explicit (neutrinos do not carry color charge). But if for some reason the color charge should self-annihilate (as in the extreme pressures of the Big Bang, a black hole, or via the "X" IVB), the leptonic decay of a baryon can go forward. It is this effect that allows the weak force decays of electrically neutral leptoquark-antileptoquark pairs during the birth of the Cosmos.
"In the limit" the color charge vanishes. This limit probably translates physically to compacting the quarks of a baryon to "leptonic size", eliminating any threat to symmetry-keeping by the quark partial charges. In this condition, with no color charge present, a baryon is indistinguishable from a heavy lepton, reverting to its ancestral form, the "leptoquark". When fully compressed, the leptoquark is a lepton and the color charge is implicit; when the pressure is relieved, the color charge becomes explicit and the leptoquark becomes a baryon. As a lepton, the leptoquark must have an associated neutrino, but as a baryon, this neutrino cannot cancel the explicit color charge. Thus the baryon is stable against "proton decay" in its normal (expanded) state. Only when the quarks are fully compressed, vanishing the color charge, does the baryon return to its leptonic ancestral state, and proton decay becomes possible with the emission of a leptoquark neutrino (or the absorption of a leptoquark antineutrino).
Presumably, all baryons have one and the same "number" charge, as all stem from the same leptoquark ancestor, and all must revert to this same high-energy form to decay, resulting in the extraordinary stability of the proton. Other than the hypothetical superheavy "X" IVB, it seems likely that only the gravitational pressures of a black hole can provide sufficient symmetrically applied force to routinely cause proton decay. If this is so, then the interior of black holes may consist of nothing but gravitationally trapped light, a condition strangely reminiscent of the gluons or "sticky light" trapped within a baryon. (While a neutron star is like a gigantic gravitationally bound compound atomic nucleus, a black hole represents the next level of simplification, a gigantic gravitationally bound single baryon.) Trapped light would solve the question of the infinite compressibility of matter at the central singularity, as there is no quantum-mechanical limit to the superposition of photons. (See also: "A Connection Between 'Inflation' and the 'Big Crunch'")
The strong force (color field) acts to protect light's symmetry by confining quarks to whole quantum unit charge combinations, and restores light's symmetry through self-annihilation and proton decay. The strong force (meson field) initiates nuclear fusion, resulting in the creation of heavy elements in the nucleosynthetic pathway of stars, and the conversion of nuclear binding energy to light. This pathway, however, is relatively short and ineffective, as only a small fraction of the energy stored in baryons can be released through nuclear fusion. Proton decay completely converts nuclear mass to light, but the process is so rare that the proton, in human terms, is virtually eternal. We owe the stability of matter to the color charge of the strong force, the weakness of gravity, and the huge mass-energy barrier of the "W" and "X" IVBs. But the seeds of its own destruction are contained within the baryon, through the principle of asymptotic freedom and the potential self-annihilation of the color charge. (See: "The Half-Life of Proton Decay and the Heat Death of the Universe.")
The Weak Force IVBs: Fission, Identity Charge
Because it is the weak force which breaks the symmetric state of energy in the Big Bang and brings the material Universe into existence, we might not expect this force to be particularly active in returning the material system to symmetry. Yet, the force that creates matter can also destroy matter, and it does so in several ways - through the decay of heavy particles to their ground state, through the fission of heavy compound nuclei (radioactivity), through contributions to fusion in the nucleosynthetic pathway of stars, and through the process of proton decay, for which it provides the annihilating identity charge (the leptoquark antineutrino) as well as the "X" IVB. (See: "The Particle Table".)
When we consider an elementary particle, such as the electron (e-), we often forget that this particle carries two charges, electric charge and identity (or "number") charge. The electric charge is indicated by the negative sign, the identity charge is indicated by the "e" (this charge is sometimes referred to as "flavor"). We say that identity charge is "hidden", or carried in implicit form, by the massive electron, but is revealed in its explicit, "bare", and nearly massless form as the electron neutrino. (Whether or not the neutrino is actually massless has little to do with its symmetry debt of "identity". Most charges are in fact carried by massive particles). Usually the "identity" charge is simply called lepton or baryon "number" charge (or even "flavor" charge), which obscures the true meaning of this charge. If "number" charge adequately described its function, then the number charge of the electron would also serve as the number charge of the muon and tau; but as we have discovered, there is a specific and distinct neutrino associated with each member of the elementary leptonic spectrum, so the charge is more accurately described as "identity". Moreover, we can readily assign "identity" as the plausible symmetry debt of light's "anonymity", with a sensible function to perform in annihilation reactions (facilitating the choice of the correct antimatter partner), arguments and contact with Noether's theorem which we cannot make for the generalized "number" charge.
It is at first a curious fact, and then after reflection an obvious one, that the "identity" charge is the key to manifestation. It is identity that brings matter into existence as the principle or "cardinal" symmetry debt. But then, how could it be otherwise? Identity is the essence of asymmetry, the key ingredient of information that must be isolated from the symmetric field of energy if manifestation is to occur. (See also: "The Weak Force "W" Particle as the Bridge Between Symmetric (2-D) and Asymmetric (4-D) Reality".)
In addition to the mesons (which function to transform baryons in both the strong and weak forces), the leptonic field of elementary particles functions as an alternative charge carrier, both for the symmetric, composite field of the quarks and hadrons, and for other leptons. The massive leptons function as alternative carriers of electric charge, the (nearly) massless neutrinos function as alternative carriers of identity charge, the mesons function as alternative carriers of quark spin, flavor, color, and partial electric charges. Without these services, the symmetric quark field could not manifest, since in the absence of alternative carriers, quarks could only balance their charges with antiquarks, and they would remain forever locked in mutually annihilating particle-antiparticle pairs. Without neutrinos, the massive leptons would likewise remain locked in their particle-antiparticle pairs, themselves lacking an alternative carrier of identity. Hence it is that the neutrino, the least of all particles, becomes the "mouse which nibbles the lion's net", providing an alternative conserved carrier of identity charge, and through this service, unleashes the information potential of the Cosmos. (See: "The Weak Force: Identity or Number Charge".)
Just as we see the information pathway of the electromagnetic force evolving to reestablish the primordial connective unity of light (social systems, ecosystems) and emergent forms of symmetry (beauty) throughout living systems, so we also see through the rise of consciousness and the emergence of organisms with definite individuality and personality, the reemergence and exploration of weak force "identity" in the biological realm.
For a further discussion of the weak force IVBs (and associated Higgs bosons) in their full energy spectrum, see:
There is another apex of the Tetrahedron Model of Light and Conservation Law which involves the second law of thermodynamics, entropy. It is through entropy that we are able to complete the conservation linkage between the dimensional structure of space, light, and matter. The primordial entropy drive of light is expressed through its intrinsic motion, which not only creates space and its metric (the conservation domain of light), but causes the expansion and cooling of space as well. The primordial entropy drive of bound energy is expressed through the intrinsic motion of time (and gravity), creating historic spacetime, the conservation domain of matter's causal information matrix. The intrinsic motion of time causes the aging and decay of matter and information and the expansion and dilution of history. Time and gravity are therefore a conserved form of light's entropy in matter (second thermodynamic law); mass and momentum are the conserved form of light's raw energy in matter (first law, energy conservation); the charges (and spin) of matter are the conserved form of light's various symmetries, and constitute the essential information which particles require, in the absence of antimatter, to return to their original symmetric state (Noether's Theorem). Causality and the "Interval" are the metric analogs of conserved, invariant material charges. Charge invariance is the key to the local activity of the four forces. (See: "Effects of Global and Local Gauge Symmetries".
Before "Big Bang" symmetry-breaking, in the absence of matter, Noether's Theorem is expressed through inertial metric symmetry conservation (including the suppression of local time), and the suppression of virtual particles by matter-antimatter annihilations, all gauged by "velocity c". After symmetry breaking, in the presence of matter, Noether's Theorem is expressed through charge and spin conservation, the inertial forces of the spacetime metric, and ultimately, by gravitation and time (through the conversion of bound to free energy in stars and black holes). Entropy conservation allows the conversion of free energy to work; symmetry conservation allows the conversion of free energy to charge and information; raw energy conservation allows the conversion of free energy to mass and momentum. These three conservation laws, acting in concert, allow (but do not cause) weak force symmetry-breaking and the conversion of light to our familiar material Universe. Time, causality, gravitation, and historic spacetime provide the connective linkages of matter's "causal matrix" and information field. History is the functional analog of space. The continued reality of historic spacetime and matter's "causal matrix" are necessary to uphold the continuing reality of the "Universal Present Moment" of material existence.
Light's primordial entropy drive (light's intrinsic spatial motion), creates, expands, and cools light's dimensional conservation domain, space; matter's primordial entropy drive (the intrinsic motion of time) creates, expands, and dilutes information's dimensional conservation domain, history. Gravity, the entropy conversion force, welds space and the drive of spatial entropy (light's intrinsic motion) into time and the drive of historical entropy (time's intrinsic motion), creating historic spacetime, the joint entropy/conservation domain of free and bound energy. The first and second laws of thermodynamics are connected through the entropic creation of the dimensional conservation domains of light and matter. The function of entropy is to create a dimensional domain (space, history, historic spacetime) appropriate to its energy type (free or bound), in which energy can be transformed, used, but nevertheless conserved. Gravity equilibrates the two entropy drives (by extracting time from space) so that interaction between them is possible, creating their joint dimensional conservation domain, historic spacetime.
The metric equivalency between space, time, and light is gauged (regulated) by the universal energy constant c; the entropic equivalency between space, time, and mass is gauged by G, the universal gravitational constant. G is related to c as entropy is related to energy. The magnitude of G is determined by the small energy difference between the symmetric spatial entropy drive (S) of light (the intrinsic motion of light, as gauged by "velocity c"), and the asymmetric historical entropy drive (T) of matter (the intrinsic motion of time, as gauged by "velocity T"):
S - T = -G
This is equivalent to the small energy difference between implicit (S) and explicit (T) time. (For a further discussion of the weakness of gravity, see: "The Half-Life of Proton Decay and the 'Heat Death' of the Cosmos".)
The gravitational conversion of space and the drive of spatial entropy (S), to time and the drive of historic entropy (T), can be symbolically represented in a (non-quantitative) "concept equation" as :
-Gm(S) = (T)m
The spatial entropy drive of free energy therefore funds the historical entropy drive of bound energy, and the expansion of the Cosmos must decelerate accordingly (because time is produced by the gravitational annihilation of space).
The cosmic drama begins innocently enough with the entrance of pure light and light's creation, the spacetime metric (which exists to regulate and conserve light's energy). The interaction of light with the spacetime metric creates a cast of virtual particles in symmetric particle-antiparticle pairs: some heavy (hadrons), some light (leptons), some composite and complex, some elementary and simple, but all related and all derived from the interaction between light's energy and the metric structure of spacetime. They are costumed in various charges which allow them to alternate with blinding speed between their particle and wave forms, a counterpoint between manifest and unmanifest reality, a true magic show. But then a symmetry disaster strikes, and the plot literally thickens. Some of the heavy, composite particles of antimatter have reverted to their wave form via their neutrinos and the weak force "X" IVB, without annihilating their matter counterparts. Caught by surprise in an expanding Universe, the color charges of the remaining leptoquarks also expand from an implicit to an explicit (and conserved) state, preventing any further leptonic decay via neutrinos (neutrinos do not carry color charge). The matter particles now have no way of reverting to their wave form in the absence of their antimatter partners; they are trapped by their expanding color charges in the 4th dimension of explicit time, whereas before they existed in the virtual realm of two or three symmetric spatial dimensions. We recognize them now as baryons. In the rapidly expanding and cooling Universe, they are left in their asymmetric and massive forms, one half of light's particle form, with all their charges intact and exposed, charges which had previously functioned to unite them with their antimatter partners and return both to light. The charges of matter are the symmetry debts of light. Like Hamlet's father, the baryons have been treacherously thrust into a new realm without the chance to absolve their "sins".
Spacetime becomes the dimensional entropy/conservation stage upon which the play now unfolds, a negentropic arena provided by the energy of gravitation (energy borrowed, in turn, from the expansion of space). Gravitation creates the time dimension through its ceaseless annihilation of space; time and gravity endlessly induce each other. Gravity pays the interest on the symmetry debt of matter by the creation of time, funded through the deceleration of cosmic expansion. The argument of the play is this: can the particles, using their conserved symmetry charges, either individually or collectively revert to their symmetric wave form (light) in the absence of their antimatter partners? Is one-half of the information contained in the original particle-antiparticle pair enough to accomplish this magical transformation? The answer is yes, but only in the additional dimension of explicit time, and in two modes: a collective process (the gravitational conversion of bound to free energy in stars and black holes), and an individual process (proton decay). Both will arrive at the same result, the complete transformation of the particle and bound energy to light. In the meantime, as a sort of subplot, or "play within a play", an electromagnetic information pathway develops (life, biology), which attempts to express or reconstitute in material systems its charge-memory of the symmetry and connective unity of its primordial state. The development of personal "identity" and the abstract information systems of humans reprise and recollect our physical origins, in religious, aesthetic, psychological, and rational terms, including even the fractal algorithm of the information pathway. (See: "The Information Ladder").
As for the issue of "intelligent design", the recent concept of the global "Multiverse" in service of the "Anthropic Principle" offers a completely satisfactory resolution of the problem of the "special balancing" or "exquisite adjustment" of our Universe's physical constants. According to this view, we naturally find ourselves inhabiting that special local Universe, of perhaps infinitely many realized possibilities, in which the physical constants of Nature are so adjusted, by chance alone, as to favor the evolutionary development of our life form. But it could hardly be otherwise. We might as well be amazed at how perfectly our skin fits our body. While this is a completely rational explanation for the peculiar characteristics of our Universe, it actually says nothing at all regarding the existence of a "First Cause" or "Creator" - neither for nor against; that issue is simply pushed back to the level of the all-symmetric "Multiverse". Concerning the issue of evolution, it is simply a biological form of negative entropy driven by Natural Selection, as factual, mechanical, and impersonal as gravity or chemistry. (See: "Newton and Darwin: the Evolution and Abundance of Life in the Universe".)
The meaning of the biological information pathway that develops through time in the negentropic domain of gravitation, the significance of our human experience and our Universe, are separate topics which I address in other papers (see: "The Information Pathway"; and: "Chardin: Prophet of the Information Age"); "The Human Condition"; "Is There Life After Death?"). See also my late father's book: "Trance, Art, Creativity" in regard to the significance and meaning of the human experience.
References
(See: "Symmetry Principles of the Unified Field Theory - Part I")
http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/jag8/appendix2.html
Row 3 - Charges: The Symmetry Debts of Light
Row 3: "Mortgage", "pay later", "pay through time". Symmetry and charge conservation in obedience to Noether's theorem are the primary topics of Row 3. Each of the 4 forces is examined in terms of its fundamental charge and the broken symmetry of light which that charge represents. Quantized charges are conserved through time for payment at some future date. Charge conservation is a temporal form of symmetry conservation. Gravitation pays the interest on this "mortgage" or symmetry debt by creating matter's time dimension, taking the necessary energy from the expansion of the Cosmos, which decelerates accordingly. Time is the relevant dimensional context in which concepts such as "time deferred payment" or "cancellation of a conserved debt or charge" can have meaning.
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(row 3, cell 4)Row 4 - Field Vectors: The Force Carriers as Symmetry Payments
Row 4: "Retiring the debt, closing the account" - symmetry restoration via the four forces. In Row 4 we list the various ways in which the 4 forces act through their conserved charges to fully repay the original energy, symmetry, and entropy debts incurred by the conversion of free to bound energy during the Big Bang. All energy, entropy, and symmetry debts are fully repaid by the conversion of bound to free energy, returning matter to its original form of light. This is the payoff for symmetry-keeping and charge invariance - the local, asymmetric, temporal, and relative system of matter is enabled to return to its global, symmetric, timeless, and absolute origin - light. (See: "Currents of Symmetry and Entropy".)
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(See also: "Introduction to the Weak Force".)
(row 4, cell 4)Summary
Symmetry Conservation and Charge Invariance in the Unified Field Theory (Tetrahedron Model)
1) Noether's Theorem requires the conservation of light's symmetry no less than light's energy.
We have asserted that light and metric space create matter in symmetric particle-antiparticle pairs, and that these, through the mechanism of mutually interlocking charges, annihilate each other to recreate the light which formed them. During the "Big Bang", the asymmetric mechanism of the weak force breaks the symmetry of the particle-antiparticle pairs, producing an excess of matter. We understand that the raw energy of light is stored (conserved) in the mass and momentum of the particles, and that the charges of matter, which appear to be gratuitous from the point of view of raw energy conservation, are in fact necessary from the viewpoint of symmetry conservation: not only the raw energy of light, but its symmetric state must be conserved (Noether's Theorem). This interaction occurs within the metric arena of spacetime, the entropic dimensional setting which houses and conserves the energy "play". How is spacetime related to this drama of light and particles? What is this play about?
2) The charges (and spin) of matter are the symmetry debts of light.
3) Charge (and spin) conservation is a temporal form of symmetry conservation.
4) Paying (discharging) light's symmetry debt as held by the charges of matter is the role of the forces of physics.
5) Charge invariance (in the service of symmetry conservation) is the key to understanding the local action of the forces.
6) The field vectors of the forces act as local gauge symmetry "currents" which transform global and absolute charge invariance into local and relative charge invariance - serving charge and symmetry conservation, and in the (proximate) case of gravity, time, and the "Interval", serving energy, entropy, and causality conservation. In gravitation, the invariance of the "Interval" and causality are the metric equivalents of charge invariance in the other forces. Ultimately, gravity also serves symmetry conservation by the conversion of bound to free energy (as in the stars).
7) Gravity transforms the global spatial metric of absolute energy and light, as gauged by the electromagnetic constant c, into a local spacetime metric for relative energy and matter, as gauged by the gravitational constant G.
8) Gravity pays the entropy "interest" on matter's symmetry debt, creating time by the annihilation of metrically equivalent space, decelerating cosmic expansion in consequence. Conversely, the gravitational conversion of bound to free energy (as in the stars and Hawking's "quantum radiance" of black holes), discharges all symmetry and entropy debts, accelerating the cosmic expansion. The radiance of our sun and the stars represents a completed "circuit" of symmetry conservation.
-Gm(S) - (T)m = 0
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