Gravitational Potential as Primordial without Instant Action at Distance

                                           Gravitation cannot be stopped. Why?

New Newtonian Gravitation explores a view that gravitational potential $\phi (x)$ is primordial as generator of both space with Euclidean coordinate $x$ and matter with density $\rho (x)$ by the assignment

• $\rho (x)=\Delta\phi (x)$ for all $x$ and all time       (NGnew)

as instant-local-action performed by Laplace's differential operator $\Delta$. 

This is to be compared with the standard view with instead matter density primordial and gravitational potential generated as solution to the differential equation

• $\Delta\phi (x)=\rho (x) $ for all $x$ and all time       (NGold)

with gravitational force $-\nabla\phi$ from instant-action-at-distance. (NGold) thus harbours the main unresolved mystery of Newtonian gravitation motivating Einstein's General Theory of Relativity GR supposedly without need of instant-action-at-distance. (NGold) and also GR ask for some form of graviton particle as force carrier, which has not been found, and is not needed in (NGnew). The standard view is that all atoms in the Universe are connected/attracted to each other by exchanging a stream of gravitons as force carriers, which is an absurd idea.  

The reason matter is viewed as primordial as generator of gravitational potential, is of course that matter is visible (except for dark matter) while gravitational potential/force is invisible. 

Replacing (NGold) by (NGnew) replaces unthinkable instant-action-at-distance mediated by gravitons as force carriers, by thinkable instant-local-action and so does not force giving up Newtonian gravitation as the formidable success of mathematical thinking it is. 

(NGnew) with gravitational potential as primordial without gravitons may explain why it is impossible to "stop gravitation" by some form of barrier in the same way as light can be prevented entering your bedroom by pulling the curtains.

It is impossible to prevent local action by setting up some barrier to influence from outside. We can compare with "external enemies" which can be stopped at the border, and "internal enemies" which can show up anywhere and so cannot be stopped. 

(NGnew) gives a rationale why blocking gravitation is impossible.

Summary: (NGnew) is compatible with observations that gravitation cannot be prevented from acting out. There is no space which is free from gravitation. The gravitational potential is everywhere but you cannot see it, only its action on matter like Newton's falling apple. The gravitational potential as primordial can generate both space and matter. There is no vacuum. Space is generated when being filled with gravitational potential generating matter. Is this a new revelation, or already dismissed?

Compare with fancy of Gravity with an On/Off Switch.

Poincare vs Relativity Theory

A recent post points to the fundamental difference between material objects with positive mass and immaterial objects with zero mass such as light with connection to the concept of luminiferous aether as immaterial medium for propagation of light under intense discussion as a puzzle of the modern physics emerging at the turn to the 20th century with Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity SR as one solution attempt.  

The mathematician Poincare played a key role with main idea described as follows in Einstein 1905-2005 (eds Darrigol et al):

• Poincare actually never abandoned the ether. But he refused to regard it as an ordinary kind of matter whose motion could affect observed phenomena.
• In his lectures of 1899 on Lorentz’s theory, he wrote: I consider it very probable that optical phenomena depend only on the relative motion of the material bodies present –light sources and apparatus– and this not only to first or second order but exactly.

This is precisely the idea I have pursued in Many-Minds Relativity describing propagation of light from emitter to receiver by Maxwell's equations in a coordinate system locked to the receiver, keeping full compatibility with Newtonian mechanics. 

It is natural to compare with propagation of elastic waves in an elastic (material) bar oriented along an $x$-axis of a Euclidean $xyz$-coordinate system together with a similar bar oriented along an $x^\prime$-axis moving with velocity $v$ with respect to the $x$-axis with coordinates connected by the Galilean transformation $x^\prime = x-vt$. Each bar acts as a (material) medium for wave propagation or ether with the same wave speed, and we thus have two ethers represented by the $x$-axis and the $x^\prime$-axis moving with constant velocity with respect to each other, and so being connected by a classical Galilean transformation expressing relativity.      

We can turn this into a similar situation for propagation of light by assuming that the two elastic bars now represent two (immaterial) aethers or coordinate axes connecting emitter to receiver, with the same light speed 

We understand that in both cases aethers locked to coordinate systems act like media or "universa" for wave propagation, which thus are "carried along" with the motion, which is compatible with the null result of the Michelson-Morley experiment triggering SR.

The bottom line is that there is no role for the Lorentz transformation of SR to serve to guarantee the same speed of light in different coordinate systems, since this is already the case if the medium for light propagation is carried along with the motion under Galilean transformation. Therefore SR is not needed and so can be dismissed as a curiosity, as acknowledged by Lorentz. It seems to me that this must have been the position of also Poincare, even if not clearly being spoken out under the intense pressure to come up with something spectacular at the birth of modernity. In this regard Poincare could not compete with Einstein.

More by Poincare:

• Experiment has revealed a multitude of facts which can be summed up in the following statement: It is impossible to detect the absolute motion of matter, or rather the relative motion of ponderable matter with respect to the ether; all that one can exhibit is the motion of ponderable matter with respect to ponderable matter. (1895) Compare this post.
• Laws of physical phenomena should be the same, whether for an observer fixed, or for an observer carried along in a uniform movement of translation; so that we have not, and could not have any means of discerning whether or not we are carried along in such a motion. Compare this post.
• Indeed, experience has taken on itself to ruin this interpretation of the principle of relativity; all attempts to measure the velocity of the earth in relation to the ether have led to negative results. This time experimental physics has been more faithful to the principle than mathematical physics; ... but experiment has been stubborn in confirming it And finally Michelson has pushed precision to its limit: nothing has come of it.