Tumbling Tornadoes (2)

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Gravitational and electromagnetic effects can both be described in terms of a distortion of space and time. Gravity is a stretching of space and charge is a dynamic twisting of space following the principle of spherical rotation. This article proposes models for simple leptons and quarks which describe electrons, protons and neutrons, the commonest and most stable constituents of matter. The principle of point particles is rejected but the mathematical calculations are retained and no experimental observations are challenged.

Gravity
Afundamental difference between relativity and quantum theory is that the former consists of a distortion of space and the latter consists of independent particles existing against a background of space.
Stripped down to the basics, general relativity shows that gravitation is a distortion of the fabric of space where the presence of a mass causes space to curve around it in all directions and the curvature of space defines the position of a mass.
The path of a straight line through space will bend close up to a large mass. Any smaller object will be deflected, orbit or spiral in towards the larger mass, causing its own 'dent' in space on the way. Even light will follow a curved path around massive objects.
Although gravity acts in all three dimensions, the familiar model of a cannonball on a trampoline (or stretched rubber membrane) simplefies it to two dimensions. Masses are represented by dents in this surface and smaller ones can be shown to circle around larger ones, just like the orbit of a planet around a star.

Charged Particles
A major stumbling block to modelling charge in the same three-dimensional space as gravitation is that a simple pushing or pulling of the same space does not work. There are no directions left to push into.
earlier attempts to reconcile this problem proposed a separate lumeniferous aether which could be stretched and bent to explain electro-magnetic effects.
The current standard model of physics calls for many extra dimensions where several kinds of force fields can manifest themselves in the three dimensions we experience in daily life.
But there are other ways of distorting space. Go back to the trampoline model and apply a twist in the centre. The material deforms into a spiral pattern, storing energy and wanting to spring back to its unstressed state. A twist in one direction represents a positive charge and a twist in the opposite direction is a negative charge.
Opposite twists tend to run together and unwind to cancel each other out. Twists in the same direction tend to push each other apart so that in both cases, the local stress is relieved.
A more dynamic representation of twisting space is a hurricane in the air or a whirlpool in water. Parellel waves in water passing through a pair of narrow slits are often used to demonstrate how charged particles can act as waves. I have not been able to find a description of what happens when a whirlpool is aimed at a double slit but if an interference pattern results, it would make the idea of charge as twisting space more plausible.
A rotating disturbance does not have a solid centre and if it is bombarded by smaller particles, there is nothing substantial to rebound from. A few incident particles may swing round the eye of the storm and come back in the opposite direction (ie sense), giving the same effect as an infinitesimal particle.

Point Particles
Quantum mechanics is a very powerful and precise method of explaining the behaviour of small particles in space but there are seious problems in interpreting things like protons and electrons as point particles.
How can a dimensionless entity have a magnetic moment or a spin? If a particle is concentrated at a single point, its density must be infinite. Similarly, its charge density must be infinite. And if everything is confined to these points, space is 100% empty.
There is an even greater problem in seeing protons and neutrons as point particles when they are supposed to be made up from three smaller point particles called quarks.
The insistence on the actual existence of point particles has become a quasi-religious doctrine in physics. The concept of a centre of mass in Newtonian mechanics is a highly accurate mathematical representation but only within certain limits. It does not prove that the Sun, Moon and Earth are dimensionless points in space.

Spherical Rotation...

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Spherical Rotation
One limitation of the whirlpool or hurricane model is that the twist is about a vertical axis instead of being omni-directional as in the observed nature of charge. A three-dimensional representation of twist is required.
Several people have modelled charged particles as some kind of knot in space but to make this work, a line through space has to be broken, passed over itself and then re-joined. If a closed loop is proposed, it is isolated from the fabric of space and still has to be cut open to react with other particles.
The geometrical effect known as spherical rotation can resolve such problems.
The attached image of an electron shows how lines through space are distorted around a spiralling disturbance of space itself. Lines closer to the centre are twisted more and more until they circle round into a loop. But the loop itself is turning round in a form of precession as indicated by the small arrow in the centre.
It may be thought at first that this additional turn will cause a massive snarl-up in the centre but surprisingly, anything travelling along this line will follow a smooth unbroken path without getting tied up with neighbouring fibres and will continue on its way out the other end.
If you slice through the configuration at any angle, in any plane, the same spinning loop pattern will appear. At the heart of the electron, space flips over 180 degrees for every 360 degree loop.
A good demonstration of spherical rotation is available on YouTube under 'Spherical Rotation and the WSM Model'.
If you imagine yourself on a roller coaster going round a spherically rotating loop, you will come out the other end and continue on your way upside down! It would take two turns to get back the right way up.
This is a geometrical explanation of the spin of one half attributed to protons and electrons in quantum theory. Such configurations are able to rotate indefinitely in space whilst remaining an integral part of that space. There does not have to be a snagging or breaking of the fabric of three-dimensional space in and around them.
I have adopted the convention of an anti-clockwise downward spiral as representing an electron with its negative charge. An anti-clockwise upward spiral would then represent a positively charged electron, ie a positron.

Eye of the Storm
Williamson and Van der Mark's 1997 paper [1] presents an electron model based on a closed loop with a Moebius twist. They include calculations to show the minimum size of such a structure, for a 'particle' of a given wavelength. If the same topological description can be applied to the twisted loop at the centre of the tumbling tornado model, there would be a similar lower limit. Below this, there would be a lacuna, like the eye of a hurricane, where space is undisturbed.
Therefore, where the mathematics of conventional physics imply a singularity, there may be a region of calm, around which electrical and gravitational fields are centred.

Mass
If a loop is formed in a piece of string, its length becomes shorter. If this is taken as a metaphor for a line in space, the pulling together of the ends represents a mass.
A whirlpool depresses the water surface in a manner similar to the dent in the surface of the stretched rubber membrane which is often used to demonstrate Einstein's concept of mass. There is also an region of low pressure at the centre of a circular storm.
A spherically rotating loop would tighten up space in all radial directions, giving the effect of a gravitational field. The vast bulk of the energy tied up in this system, however, is in the twisting motion and the ratio between this and the gravitational component has over 40 zeros in it.
Mass can exist without a charge but according to the tumbling tornado model, a charge will always be associated with a mass, as is observed in practice.
If the model is correct, light passing around the eye of the storm will be delayed as it does so, causing a tiny time dilation effect.

Quarks...

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Quarks
The concept of quarks has always presented problems. They are component parts of observable particles but have fractional charges and cannot exist as independent phenomena.
The principal of spherical rotation can also be applied to quarks but instead of a full tumbling loop, they consist of one third or two thirds of a loop, with a corresponding one sixth or two sixths of a turn.
The diagram labelled 'baryon' shows a mustering of three quarks, as is the case for protons, neutrons and other baryons. From any direction of approach towards the centre, a line through space will follow a set of three twisting and turning movements amounting to a full looped twist together with a half turn.
The simplest quarks are labelled 'up' and 'down'. The former has a two thirds twist (charge) and a one third turn (spin). Down quarks have a one third twist in the opposite direction with a sixth of a turn.
The illustration shows a proton, which consists of one down quark between two up quarks. A 2/3 turn is followed by 1/3 of a reverse turn then 2/3 forwards again. The overall effect is 4-1=3 thirds, ie one complete rotation. 240-120+240=360 degrees. The accompanying spins are half of these figures, ie 120-60+120=180 degrees. So the overall effect is that of a particle with a charge of +1 and a spin of 1/2.
There is an apparent violation of symmetry in the diagram since the down quarks at the bottom of the triangle are shown as mirror images. This, however, is a consequence of the difficulty of representing a dynamic three-dimensional effect on a flat surface. The spin of the entire structure means that the third quark is being viewed inside out. If the quarks are pictured as being on the surface of a sphere, the third one is on the opposite side and appears as in a mirror.
The other stable type of baryon is a neutron, which consists of an up quark between two down quarks. Here, the angles of twist are -120+240-120=0 and the spin angles are half of these values. The net result is a particle with a spin of one half but no overall charge.
The centre of charge and centre of mass of baryons does not have to be a singularity isolated within the surrounding space. It can instead be seen as a muster mark around which the quarks are marshalled.

Mesons
Mesons are unstable particles consisting of pairs of quarks and anti-quarks. the one illustrated below is a pi-meson or pion, wherein an up quark with a 2/3 twist is linked to an anti-up quark with a -2/3 twist, resulting in a particle with a net charge of zero.

Other Particles...

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Other Particles
The foregoing argument provides a plausible explanation for electrons, protons and neutrons which is consistent with observations. Less stable particles can be imagined as fleeting eddies in the fabric of space and time. This is still work in progress and it remains to be seen whether the model can be stretched to accommodate entities such as the heavier forms of quarks and various exotic particles.
There need not be a lower limit to the size of particles: there could be eddies within eddies ad infinitum. If so, effects smaller than electrons and quarks might await discovery at ever higher energy levels and be interpreted as particles.
Photons can be envisaged as a helical twist of space travelling in a particular direction at the speed of light. If you take a 'slinky' toy and twist one end rapidly in one direction and back again, a pulse of energy travels towards the other end. If space itself is twisting, the effect is a photon.

Conclusion
If gravity is a distortion of space, charge can be seen as a spherically rotating distortion of the same space. The need for separate gravitional, electrical weak and strong force fields or any kind of separate aether is reduced and possibly eliminated. Additional dimensions might similarly turn out to be an unnecessary complication.
The concept of charge as tumbling tornadoes is not easy to grasp at first but overall, it is a simpler way of describing observed reality than point particles. Occam's razor gang have a lot of work to do but what would be left is an elegant description of the world using only a few basis premises.

Acknowledgements

[1] J. G. Williamson and M. B. van der Mark 'Is the Electron a Photon with Toroidal Topology?' Published in 'Annales de la Fondation Louis de Broglie' (in English) Vol.22 No.2 133. 1997. Website: http--members.chello.nl~n.benschop-electron The diagrams from this paper have been much used by ToeQuest members.

I have used many other ideas from ToeQuest and beyond but this particular combination is my own. Special acknowledgement should be given to 'Farsight' from whom I have taken much inspiration, while avoiding a straight copy.

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I know the above post is quite long but I would very much appreciate some feedback from those who have managed to stay the course.
I promise not to bite!

[Max™]

Quite interesting, good news: you're not the only one who has came to a conclusion like this.

That means you're not insane!

These were my original drawings that I started with last year:



I also had the same realization that the twisting induced by the different ways you can arrange similar loop structures could represent electromagnetic charges and the other forces.

The resistance to pulling a loop apart from the ends is the actual tensile strength of space, which resists being curved into loops somewhat as well, strong and weak force.


What are your thoughts on time though?

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Thank you Mkirkpatrick and Max for taking the time to look through this post.
Max, your diagram of knots was one of the ideas which went into the big melting pot, along with many others. Although most of the components were pre-existing, I wish to claim the credit for this particular combination.
You asked about time but I don't have any special ideas about this. Time and space are simply there and both can appear to distort depending on which moving frame of reference you pick.

[Max™]

Hmmm, interesting, and it is indeed unique from what I am describing in practice.

I couldn't find a way to specify the curvature/twisting of the threads except in relation to other nodes, so I included the EM force that way. Should be viable to work out the other form as you've written similarly though.

The reason I asked about time is because I'm all too aware of the problem of trying to describe a curvature of space along a purely spatial axis. You need to consider the temporal aspect as well, it seems to me.

[spacedout]

Interresting about tornadoes being part of particles. Moving around a particle with half spin you must pass one tornado having a right hand spin then a left hand spin half way around the particle. I seems there has to be 4 spins and 4 counter spins placed at the apex of a cube. Does this make any sense?

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Max,
I have started with a model for static masses and charges, concentrating on the nuclear scale. Next, I will apply the concept to larger scale phenomena such as black holes and look at the universe as a whole. I don't have enough details yet to extend the other way into the realms of preons or rishons, if they exist.
When it comes to a tumbling tornado moving at close to the speed of light, it may well be that I have to re-examine my picture of time but until then, I want to see how far I can push the idea using the minimum of basic assumptions.