Does the Aether Exist?
Yes, it does, this question strikes at the heart of a gross misinterpretation of Special Relativity. Everyone who uses the accepted interpretation of Special Relativity will answer no to this question. Consequently, almost all physicists that answer this question will say no.
The incorrect interpretation of Special Relativity surprisingly comes from Einstein. He states early on in his famous paper, ON THE ELECTRODYNAMICS OF MOVING BODIES, that motion through space is relative just between comparable moving frames of reference. Originally the Lorentz Transformations which comprise the theory of Special Relativity were derived using a model where there existed an absolute stationary frame of reference. The absolute frame of reference was considered to be the aether.
In Einstein’s paper, he denies the aether by deliberately inserting this statement.
ON THE ELECTRODYNAMICS OF MOVING BODIES
Albert Einstein
The introduction of a “luminiferous ether” will prove to be superfluous inasmuch as the view here to be developed will not require an “absolutely stationary space” provided with special properties, nor assign a velocity-vector to a point of the empty space in which electromagnetic processes take place.
In my book “Master of Reality” I thoroughly investigate why Einstein very deliberately added this statement and denies the existence of the aether in the year 1905. As it turns out Einstein released his paper just a few short months before the results of the famous Michelson-Morley Experiment were announced. The aether wind was not detected and this led to the infamous announcement of the null result. It has been proven by historical experts that Einstein was already aware that the Michelson-Morley experiment. He knew that the experiment was going to fail to find evidence of the aether wind. The null result shocked both Einstein and Lorentz as they both believed in the aether. The bottom line here is that Einstein knew that the detection of the aether would not be found by this experiment. So, to save his theory from being ridiculed he disassociated the theory of Special Relativity from the aether. Instead he made the theory all about motion relative to other moving frames of reference and not about motion relative to a stationary aether background or space.
Unfortunately, everyone bought into Einstein’s explanation because the Michelson-Morley experiment result appeared to prove that the aether did not exist. In reality, even though the measurements were correct the results and implications of Special Relativity were completely misinterpreted. The faulty assumption was made. It was assumed that because the aether wind was not detected the aether did not exist.
The question now arises, why was the aether wind not detected? The answer is quite simple. The measurement of light beams at right angles was used to determine the earth’s motion relative to the aether. What everyone did not realize at that time is that photons (wave-like particles of light) acquire their motion from an internal pressure wave that exists inside of the photon structure. This means that the photon’s motion is completely autonomous meaning that the photon’s motion is completely independent of all other external causes of motion. Therefore, the photon’s motion is self-caused and perpetual. We should interpret this to mean the motion of particles of light are completely independent of all other external motion frames of reference. This means we cannot use the motion of particles of light to determine our motion relative to the aether. No matter how the earth moves through space we will always measure the speed of light to be the same. The cause of the photon’s motion is determined by the internal structure of the photon relative to the aether. Therefore, its motion is absolute. The lack of understanding about this important fact of nature led to the complete misinterpretation of the Michelson-Morley experiment null result.
In fact, according to the theory of Super Relativity, all fundamental particles acquire their motion as a result of their internal structure and their motion comes about as being caused by an internal particle pressure wave. Light particles are not like bullets moving through the air. A bullet acquires its motion from an external force. A bullet moves because of rapidly expanding gases in the cartridge that they are fired from. That means the bullet's motion is not independent of its source or other moving frames of reference.
So why am I talking so much about the Michelson-Morley Experiment? This experiment leads directly to a misinterpretation of our physical reality. This badly designed experiment convinced Einstein to change his mechanical model from an aether based description of reality to a description that is not aether based and when the interpretation is examined closely it does not make sense.
Then the question arises. Is there is a way to detect absolute motion relative to the aether? There is a way to detect absolute motion relative to the aether. Yes, according to Poincaré he believed that clocks resting in the aether are showing the true time. That true-time according to my theory will translate to mean that a clock will move fastest when that clock is stationary relative to the aether. Therefore, any reference frame of motion that has a clock rate that is slower than the maximum clock rate will be considered to be in motion relative to the absolute stationary aether. All we have to do is decelerate our motion relative to the aether. How will we know if we are slowing our motion down relative to the aether? Simple, the clock rate of motion will speed up as we slow down our motion relative to the aether. The clock rate whose motion is the fastest will always be the frame of reference that is stationary relative to the aether.
Evidence that Proves the Existence of the Ether
Light is a Transverse Wave
The fact that light is a transverse wave strongly supports the theory that the ether is a solid. Transverse waves travel almost exclusively within solids. The theory of Super Relativity says that space is a quasi-elastic solid. This agrees with both Einstein and Lorentz aether model.
Particle Persistence
The medium of space needs to possess enough shear strength and that requires the medium to be rigid enough to support the shear strength which neither liquids nor gases are capable of. This is the only way objects such as sub-atomic fundamental particles can be permanent and persistent. Particles do not dissolve or dissipate within the aether.
Can Something Travel Through Nothing?
The view of some modern-day scientists but not all scientists is that electromagnetic waves which are also transverse, are self-propagating. This means that they sustain themselves by some mechanism that at this time is not understood by those scientists. The most popular theory explaining the motion of photons is that light waves travel through a complete void that is made of nothing. The light particle-wave does not require a medium and since there is no medium it is not interacting with anything else. Therefore, what we have are electromagnetic particles that travel through an empty void which is assumed to be made of nothing and therefore completely empty. This, however, gives rise to a paradoxical situation where particles which are made of something are traveling through an empty void of space that is considered to be made of nothing. Now they also say that the photons are interacting with nothing but that is also a contradiction of fact. If they are traveling through nothing then what is limiting the velocity of light? It must be interacting with something because light travels at a constant maximum velocity. What is holding it back? As you can see there are some deep flaws in the modern-day theory.
Space must be a material object
This simple equation verifies that space is a real physical object. Distance = Rate* Time. If space is an empty void as most scientists say then the distance between any two points A and B will be equal to zero. It will not matter how far apart points A and B are separated. Points A and B can be separated by an entire light year and if the space in between those two points was an empty void made of nothing then it would take zero time to traverse that distance no matter how fast you were moving. I can prove it mathematically. By using the equation above and I solve for time so that Time = Distance / Rate we will discover that time will be equal to zero if distance is made of nothing. This is true because nothingness is equal to zero quantitively speaking. Therefore, when I divide zero by any other number or in this case any rate of motion it would take zero time to traverse a truly empty void. In reality, it always takes some amount of time for light to travel a distance within space. That is a proven fact. Therefore, since it takes time for light to travel through space that means that space is made of something. This is true because in reality it takes a finite amount of time to traverse distances across outer space.
Space can be bent
It is impossible to bend something that does not exist. Space can be deformed in many different ways. The three primary forces of nature are the gravitational force (which is a contraction of space) the magnetic force (which is a rotation of space) and the electrostatic force (which is a spatial twist or inversion of space). These are three different types of deformations of space. If space were truly an empty void, made of nothing, these force fields would not be manifested. Yet they all exist and are observable. Therefore, space must be a real physical object that can be bent. Classical field theory can be used to describe these fields of force. These forces are made from the deformations of a continuous quasi-elastic solid.
Inertia
Whenever an object accelerates within space that object experiences inertial resistance. If space were made of nothing there would be no inertial resistance. Inertia is proof that space is a thing of substance. When a particle accelerates the space in and around the perimeter of the particle is forced to contract. The act of this contraction is what we feel as inertial resistance.
Space has real, measurable physical properties which are Permeability and Permittivity
In the complete void of outer space, we find that space has a measurable amount of permittivity and permeability. These are fundamental physical constants. If space was made of nothing and did not physically exist the aether would not have measurable physical properties. Therefore, this proves the existence of the aether. Since space has these measurable qualities the aether possesses distinctive attributes or characteristics. This proves that space is a physical object.
The Speed of Light is evidence that the aether exists
The speed of light is a fixed constant that is determined by Maxwell’s equation.
Therefore, since space has these measurable properties and these properties determine the many times verified speed of light this is more evidence that the aether exists. If the properties of permittivity and permeability of free space did not exist their values would equal zero. If their values were equal to zero the speed of light would be infinitely fast. Since the speed of light is not infinitely fast this proves that the aether exists.
The Many Interpretations of Particle Motion
While I would agree that light is self-propagating as it is explained in my theory, there is also an alternate explanation whereby many physicists say that light is moving by virtue of momentum, however that is not a self-propagating mechanism. At the same time, many physicists believe that particles are not moving and do not have trajectories. Particle location changes are merely calculated by probability calculations. Therefore, it appears that there are competing explanations among scientists regarding this important concept of the cause of particle motion, with several explanations given to describe particle motion. Many other physicists will explain the speed of light by saying, that light is also an electromagnetic wave that travels at the speed of light and electromagnetic waves are explained by Maxwell's equations. This gets confusing since in many cases, photons can also exhibit particle-like behavior. Sometimes physicists model the photon as a particle and sometimes as a wave. We know the photon exists as an electromagnetic wave, while at the same time in certain situations it behaves like a particle with multiple properties. It is a persistent material object that is in motion and also has a trajectory as well as spin and charge. So basically, a particle can be described as both a wave and a particle. Currently, mainstream science still cannot fully define the “photon”. Without a complete understanding of the foundational structure of a particle like the photon, mankind will not be able to explain the central cause of particle motion. In Super Relativity particle motion is directly related to and caused by the particle’s internal structure and how that structure interacts with the background medium. Since this will eventually be proven to be correct, this is more evidence of the aether.
In summary, conventional modern-day physics can’t fully define space or particles or explain why they move. The evidence of our world indicates that space must be made of something otherwise there would be no distance to traverse when light travels through outer space. If space was truly equal to nothing at all, then the speed at which light traveled would be infinite. If space were truly an empty void it would take zero time for light to travel through it. This is not what we experience when we measure the speed of light.
With all that I just said concerning the photon motion through space and the aether, this statement made about the ether should now make sense. I present this statement as authoritative proof as there is no greater authority on how the Universe works than Albert Einstein.
* “Recapitulating, we may say that according to the general theory of relativity space is endowed with physical qualities; in this sense, therefore, there exists an ether. According to the general theory of relativity space without ether is unthinkable; for in such space there not only would be no propagation of light, but also no possibility of existence for standards of space and time (measuring-rods and clocks), nor therefore any space-time intervals in the physical sense. But this ether may not be thought of as endowed with the quality characteristic of ponderable media, as consisting of parts which may be tracked through time. The idea of motion may not be applied to it.”
* http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Extras/Einstein_ether.html
Ether and the Theory of Relativity by Albert Einstein
Space is a container and containers exist
Another point that is difficult to reconcile is that if space were truly equal to nothing at all, that would mean that it does not exist. How can something that is equal to nothing and therefore does not exist contain particles that do exist? Something that is made of nothing cannot be a container for something that does exist. Logically speaking, space must be made of something and the particles that exist within this aether medium (container) must be consubstantial with the aether.