“Hey, I’ve got an idea,” shared uncle Juan. “You think that time will be different between here and that place in the UK, right?”
“Si,” replied Javier as Angel also nodded in agreement.
“So maybe the gravity is different. I mean, you say that this is the basis of red shift, so it means the space is stretched which is just like gravity, right?”
“I suppose so, tio. What are you thinking?”
“You could set up a gravimetric experiment, but you only need to do it here in Rio Grande.”
The three of them had flown in that morning and settled into Juan’s flat which was a third floor penthouse in a modest looking building. But it had a huge rooftop patio with views of the ocean, which was only a block away. His building was modest but by comparison, it was among the best in town. Unlike other places in Patagonia, which were tourist destinations, Rio Grande was a diverse working town of sheep ranching, electronic assembly, and fishing tourism. There was also a satellite campus of the university of Buenos Aires serving Patagonia and it was this particular fact that made Rio Grande well suited as the location for a small but strategic astronomical and atmospheric research facility.
It was a barren, windswept tundra with unkind winters but rather pleasant, mild summers. Javier was overjoyed to step onto the tarmac of the tiny airport on a balmy summer morning, his senses defying his memories of being blasted with cold air and snow while trotting, near blind, over to the terminal building. With the precautions he had now observed in places like Denver or Chicago, with special infrastructure and procedures to de-ice the planes in cold conditions, he wondered how was it possible that a place like “Rio”, as they referred to it jokingly, was able to avoid the global spotlight due to plane crashes on take-off. He mentioned it to Juan who had pondered the same question, but had pursued and obtained his answer. “No one comes here in the winter,” Juan explained. “If they did, these planes would be dropping like flies. In the winter the planes are as light as feathers. Almost no tourists and not much cargo.”
But this was the summer and the height of the tourist season. Juan was practically a celebrity in the town and knew where to go to treat his favorite nephew and the lovely but brilliant Mexicana to the best that Patagonia had to offer. They dined on fresh oceangoing brown trout and coveted sea bass, along with Argentine wine, while discussing Juan’s idea in depth.
“If gravity is affected enough, then you should see a difference in weight between the time when we are at the point behind the earth and when we are not. I don’t know when that is but I’m sure you guys figured it out.”
Angel responded. “It changes seasonally. Like now for instance, five a.m. is the most rarified and five p.m. the least,” she explained. “It’s a great idea Juan. But what kind of measurement equipment do we need?”
“Tio, it’s really worth a try. What about something even simpler like barometric data? The detailed database is probably already there.”
“Aye muchacho! How did you get so smart. You must be related to me, hahaha,” boasted Juan. “Not only is the detailed database already there, but I am the guy that collects all that data. And honestly I never thought it was of any use. You have the complication that pressure is changing constantly. So if you are always comparing measurements twelve hours apart, you will see some natural variation that creates a lot of noise in your data.”
“If we use many years of data, maybe we can see something. How long has the station been operating?”
“The observatory has been running since the mid nineties but the weather data has been collected at the airport for much longer, maybe since the seventies. Let’s have a look tomorrow when we go set up your clocks.”
“Thank you. Really thanks so much for everything Juan,” added Angel with a look of real sincerity.
“It’s my pleasure young lady. Now that I have had enough vino to be open minded, let’s talk more about your ideas. As you know, I am a string theorist, or,” Juan paused, “I was.” Juan took a long pause. It was long enough, and in combination with a notable change in his normally jovial expression, Angel and Javier both shared a sudden feeling of discomfort. “You know, the human imagination is an incredible thing. And when you add tools, interesting things happen. Some people apply technology in new and interesting ways. It is the tools and the imagination working together. I think of it as the imaginations of the past working with the imaginations of the present.”
Angel and Javier were captivated, mainly by the uncertainty of where he was leading them. “The tools that drew me in were those of mathematics. My English might be a little spotty and even my mother tongue doesn’t resonate with me like mathematics. But like spoken language, mathematics can also be an expression of creativity. Even more than that, once you start to create, the narrative to a certain extent begins to create itself because there are limits, or rules that must be followed. I hope I’m not going on like some old man gone a bit loco.”
“No tio. Please tell us what you have learned. We know nothing compared to you.”
“On the contrary Javi, both of you have rich imaginations. As in music, where the highest level is the one who can compose, physics es lo mismo. But sometimes our imagination can transcend reality. It happens all the time in fiction. In Physics, I think we have stepped over the line in treating the concept of infinity as something real. Just because gravity acts in ways that would suggest that its forces have no bounds. Light waves also should travel forever, and so on. Infinity is true mathematically, but when I considered things that you two were saying over the past months during our correspondence, it brought out my own feelings - feelings that I have been keeping down inside for so long.”
Javier tried to break in with some supportive comment, but Juan held out his hand in a gesture to allow him to continue uninterrupted.
“It has been a feature of popular, modern physics, that to assume that things should be ordinary is not only wrong but it illustrates our limitations to understand the fundamental nature. This has been the case for one hundred years now, since Bohr and Heisenberg faced off with Louis de Broglie and even Einstein. But I have wondered. I’m like my old priest back in Buenos Aires who near the end of his life realized he had convinced himself about god and his faith. But in the end, he too had a confession to make. He said that his life had been a lie and his regret was that he never had the courage to face what lay beyond. It was not god that kept him tethered to his faith. It was his own human weakness.”
“That was just several years ago, and I can tell you, that hit me over the head like nothing I have ever experienced. He never told another soul. He knew that I had always just played along for the sake of the family and tradition. But as a theoretical physicist, he needed to confess to me. Little did he know that like some divine intervention, his words have changed me. And now I am confessing to you. I feel as though I know nothing and I want to start over.” Juan was teary as he completed sharing the things he was so compelled to share.
Angel, always so emotional and easy to cry, was now in tears herself and rushed around the table. Juan was barely able to stand half way before she embraced him. Javier was right behind her, more shaken and bewildered than teary but driven to support his icon and mentor. His mind raced to process what had just been shared and he craved for more specific insights.
The three were wrapped together in a tangle of solidarity while the patrons of the busy establishment either gawked or tried to be respectful, pretending not to notice. But everyone noticed. As they resettled into their seats, feeling a sense of relief, the discussion carried on.
“Tio, why is it wrong to say that gravity acts at infinite distance?”
“You want to believe it is so. After all, the concept is is simple. But what if the true nature of gravity doesn’t allow it. Look at Angel’s idea about space comprised of the matrix of particles. Perhaps gravity is completely dissipated in such a system. Or, perhaps there are no infinite distances upon which gravity could act. The question is whether mathematics allows things that the physical world does not. If it is true in even the most mundane cases like gravity, then why allow mathematics to guide us too far afield?”
“But without using mathematics, in the case of gravity specifically, we wouldn’t have discovered Uranus or Neptune. The math led us to the discovery.”
“Yes, of course. But this is much different than the nature of black holes or string theory.”
“But what’s wrong with infinity? It’s been helpful in guiding theories, right? It tells you when something is wrong or that there is a limit. We assume that matter can’t travel at the speed of light because its mass becomes infinite. Is that wrong?”
“It could be wrong. Think about what you just said. Mass becomes infinite. But Angel is saying something that may sound the same to many, but to me it’s totally different. Sussman and I talked about it a few weeks ago. And we both agree. Concept is important. That’s why I’m talking about imagination. Guessing. When reasonable people guess right, they often have a feeling that it’s right. I think you two are onto something. So Javi, use your training only as a tool, to find something new, to find the truth.”
Angel had to say something, to state her position not only to these two beloved men of science but to playback her own thinking, to reaffirm. “Matter cannot extract enough energy local to its position at any instant, to move at the speed of light. Protons can come close in the big collider but they are small and dispersed. The constraint is even worse for larger objects. That’s my feeling. I mean it does not scale linearly. I wish I had a math theory to show that but I can’t. You guys know how to do that. It would be incredible. But I feel like the measurement comes first because it can inspire us.”
“Or we could be discouraged because we don’t have the right tools,” countered Javier.
“I won’t be discouraged by that. I will just try to find a better way.”
“Yes, of course darling,” replied Javier with a smile. He knew his cautionary remarks were no match for Angel’s optimism. “Tio, you heard what she just said? That’s something I never heard her say before and I have learned to take seriously whatever she says. If inertial properties do not scale linearly with mass, what would that mean?”
“That one is very interesting. Current laws do not have mass scaling linearly with velocity. After all, the speed of light is finite so if we say the mass can become infinite, then mass is increasing more than velocity. But what I hear Angel saying is that the relationship is different for large and small masses.” Both men looked at Angel who affirmed her position with a nod and then a smile.
“In my mind, it’s like this. A large body has a bigger energy problem at the trailing edge because the EMs only redistribute at the speed of light. For a proton scale object, the speed of light is fast enough to resupply the EMs because the distance is so short. But a large body is a different story. It is carving quite a large cylinder of rarified space, so imagine when it is traveling very fast. If you are on the trailing edge, I think what you find is that energy is scarce so time runs slower. So gravity, which is the flow of space, at the trailing edge, I think it is less. If it remained the same or higher, then there would be a tension from behind and the object would slow down. So it is an interesting case where gravity is less but time dilation is more.”
“Whoa! Einstein won’t like that one,” said Javier. They all laughed.
“Baby, I need to call the kids. They should be home by now.” Angel excused herself and walked over to a hallway near the entrance to make the call.
“Unbelievable. Sobrino, she is really great. How does someone’s brain suddenly switch on like that? She was just a poorly educated mother. Now she is full of interesting notions. The two of you make a handsome couple.”
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