Hi there!

Hi. My name is Ish Mohan Gupta. I am 19 years old and currently pursue my Masters in Physics at BITS Pilani KK Birla Goa Campus, India. My current interests lead to me desire a career as a Theoretical Physicist, in service to the field which in my opinion is the most awe-inspiring and rewarding.

As a 10 year-old, I was fascinated with planets and stars, who isn't, but to become a physicist was never an ambition. My aspirations varied from being an astronaut to a cricketer. But, later in life, by the time I was 15 years old I began questioning things I didn't understand. Well, to be honest, I even questioned the validity of things I did understand. In short, I didn't take things to be for granted. I wanted to confirm each phenomenon that interested me by myself.

In the way, I got introduced to the genius of Albert Einstein who somehow made me believe, even if that wasn't his intention, that if understanding the world is not simple enough, then it is just not understood well enough. So, whenever I read about a theory and understood all that I could given my knowledge as a mid-teen, I would question its complexity while also admiring the inherent beauty it had.  But, some of the unexplained phenomena and conjectures around them made me ask myself that why does something have to be this difficult to explain. which lead me to formulate my own theories.

If you view all the posts in this blog, from the earliest ones to the latest ones, you might appreciate how I have grown as a Physicist (if I am at all allowed to call myself that). While the earliest ones seem extremely childish and far from being scientific, the latest ones I am proud of. It took me time to accept the role of mathematical rigor in Physics and as you will observe that somewhere down the line, I have indulged in that too. This journey, though of merely 3-4 years now has made me embrace the bond Physics and Mathematics share which has largely contributed to my frequent adventures in Mathematics.

This blog does not only contain my theories, but also my views on everyday Physics, which includes current advancements, opinions about different theories, my experience studying different subjects in Physics as I complete the remaining years of my education, and anything else worth sharing. I might also talk about Mathematics, though seldom, as I attempt to explore the seemingly abstract field.

Finally, I often ponder over what I want in life? Is it to win a Nobel Prize? Is it to become a genius? I think genius is nature-given, one is born with it, it is not really in our hands. What is in our hands is mastery. Hence, I aim to gain mastery over my field, to know anything and everything that the field has to offer. While that might seem vague, abstract and unattainable, you must remind yourself that I am a Physicist, what else did you expect? ;-)

Dynamic Viscosity of Spacetime

Okay, so, time for a new idea! :-) A few days ago, while pondering over a biological experiment, a friend of mine mentioned fluid dynamics, particularly viscosity. For those of you are are not familiar with the term, viscosity is the property of a fluid to resist motion between its layers. It can be understood bluntly to be like the friction between two surfaces. Interesting property indeed!

Now flashback to about four months ago, where I was trying to figure out how much force will a body need to be applied to, in order to reach a certain acceleration, in a relativistic world. The formula I could derive was very different of what we know of through the Newtonian laws of Physics. The interesting thing, though, was the fact that force required in order to reach a certain acceleration in a relativistic world is always greater than that required in a classical world.

Thus, this difference in magnitudes of forces in relativistic world and classical world can be seen as a resistance that a body has to overcome in the relativistic world in order to reach a certain acceleration, while no such resistance is faced if we go by the Newtonian laws. Moreover, this resistance increases as our speed increases.

Here, γ = 1/sqrt(1-v²/c²) and is called the Lorentz factor, m is the absolute mass or rest mass of the body, a is the constant acceleration it possesses, v is its instantaneous speed, subscript c refers to classical and subscript R refers to relativistic, P refers to momentum and F refers to force.

This gave me an idea. I had read that research is going on in the area where they consider spacetime to be a superfluid, i.e. a fluid without viscosity. What if spacetime is a viscous fluid, because if it is, then I can easily relate Stoke's Law of Fluid Mechanics to my drag force! But, wait a minute, what is Stoke's Law?

Stoke's Law in fluid mechanics gives the formula for the force that will be experienced by a spherical object of radius R when it tries to move forward in a viscous liquid with a speed v. They call this resistive force as drag force. So, my idea here is to equate this drag force with the difference between relativistic force and classical force in order to find µ , i.e. the dynamic viscosity of spacetime, or in order to make you understand, the measure of stiffness of spacetime.

Here, E=mc^2. We all know where that came from! ;-) So, if my calculations are right (believe me they are, I rechecked like 20 times), then that is the formula for the dynamic viscosity of spacetime. But what is the significance of this dynamic viscosity? 

Well, it is not difficult to imagine that if the density of the fluid increases, its viscosity or stiffness will increase. Let us go the other way round, if viscosity if increasing, and no ther factor is affected, then density of the fluid must be increasing. Hence, as a body moves with faster velocity, viscosity of spacetime around it increases and so does the density. Spacetime becoming denser, if you visualize, is similar to warping of spacetime around the body, which is rightfully predicted by General Relativity. So, the theory explains why the spacetime is getting warped around a moving body! 

You would say that its relativistic mass is increasing as its speed increases, so the warping. But tell me this then, why is the mass increasing in the first place? I think that due to the movement of the body, viscosity of spacetime around it increases, resulting in denser spacetime, which indirectly means warping of spacetime around the body, which results in its increased gravitational effect! Well, something to think about! :-)

Report on Mathematical Explanations of the Spring Theory

The theory proposes that the spacetime fabric has spring-like characteristics and examines the outcomes of the assumption. The spacetime fabric’s spring-like nature results in it executing Simple Harmonic Motion (SHM) just like a compressed spring. Mathematically,

Symbol	For SHM by spacetime fabric	For SHM by particle attached to the spring
x	Present radius of observable universe	Position of particle attached to spring
A	Maximum radius that the observable universe can attain	Amplitude or Maximum displacement of the particle about mean point
ω	2*π*f (where f=frequency)	2*π*f (where f=frequency)
t	Age of the observable universe	The time that has passed since start of the SHM
φ	Phase difference	Phase difference

              

                             

·        Outcomes-

• Big Bang and the fate of the Universe- The hypothesis explains how initially the entire universe was compressed into a small particle (singularity) just like a compressed spring. After the bang, the space time fabric expanded with increasing acceleration in all directions and it still is expanding. Once the natural length of the fabric is reached, it will still expand but with decreasing acceleration, eventually coming to a stop with radius as A (defined above) same as the maximum displacement of a particle at the end of a spring. From there, the fabric will begin deceleration finally converging back to a singularity creating the same conditions as were before the Big Bang.
• Dark Energy- Just like the potential energy stored in a spring, dark energy might be nothing else but just the potential energy stored in the spacetime fabric due to its spring-like nature.
• On solving the given equations,

1. ω = 2.16 x 10^(-78) rad/s
2. A = 5.36 x 10^(86) m = 5.65 x 10^(70) light years
3. T = 9.29 x 10^(70) years

Results-

If the theory holds true,

• The maximum radius of the observable universe is 5.65 x 10^(70) light years.
• Total life of the observable universe is 9.29 x 10^(70) years.

The Spring Theory- Can it be this simple?

It often happens in science that we tend to justify certain phenomena and find logic through complex justifications even though the actual reasoning is quite simple! For many years now, dark energy has been a mystery in the scientific world, because of its repulsive powers. While investigating the mystery of dark energy, I have come up with a theory called the Spring Theory, in which I try to simplify this concept of dark energy and provide a theoretical explanation for it.

According to this theory of mine, the spacetime fabric has spring-like properties. Then, before the Big Bang, it was all compressed into one small particle just like a compressed spring. Now, as soon as the particle “banged” the fabric, just like a compressed spring, started accelerating. If the motion of a spring is observed, it is seen that a particle attached to a spring accelerates till the spring has reached its natural length and after that, the particle begins to decelerate. Similarly, the expansion of fabric is accelerating at present, meaning to say, that the fabric has still not reached its natural length. Thus, according to the Spring Theory, since we are comparing the spacetime fabric to a spring, then Dark Energy is nothing but the potential energy of the spring, something very less mysterious than the Dark Energy itself.

The theory also proposes, though indirectly, the fact that the Universe will have a center. This is contrary to popular belief. But, what should we understood is that the Universe is said to have no center just because every particle is moving away from every other particle. Meaning to say, if you choose any point in this Universe, you will observe that all the other points are moving away from it. Hence, every point in the universe acts as a center of expansion. But, if we proceed by the explanation of expansion that my theory proposes, the same fact is observed.

Now let us talk about what the theory will imply. The theory implies that the universe is undergoing accelerated expansion till the time the spacetime fabric reaches its natural length, after which it will undergo decelerated expansion finally coming to rest with a certain maximum radius. Then the universe will begin to contract, just like a stretched spring, and will soon end up in a small particle, from where it started. Another major phenomena explained by the theory is the drifting away of Earth from Sun, the Moon from Earth, and so on. If the spacetime fabric is expanding, the curvature made by celestial bodies will increase with time, hence decreasing their gravitational pull. This will directly result in the decrease in gravitational pull of all celestial bodies, the Sun, the Moon, the Earth, etc. and hence they will gradually drift away from each other.

The Spring Theory is just a hypothesis which I formulated to simplify the concept of Dark Energy, and is nowhere near proven. But, it does give us a different perspective towards explaining the mysterious phenomenon of this ever-so-mysterious Universe. But, what does this theory suggest about the even-more-mysterious black holes? We will see in the next post!!

The New Fields- Is the Higgs Field the Only Existing Field?

In the last article, I talked about how the existence of some unknown particles can facilitate the explanation of the certain phenomena and anomalies in the field of Science. But, before talking about them, let me tell you something about the discovery which has inspired this theory of mine: the Higgs Boson.

In simple, non-technical words, Higgs Boson is the particle that makes up the Higgs Field. According to Peter Higgs, who proposed the Higgs Field, any particle will gain mass when it interacts which the Higgs Field. A particle that interacts more is heavier, and a particle which interacts less is lighter. Particles which do not interact with the Higgs Field are said to be massless, eg: photons. Thus, Higgs Boson, also termed as the God particle, is said to give mass to elements. This video by TED-Ed explains in a rather interesting way the concept of Higgs Boson. Do take a look!

I think all interactions take place in the same way. What I mean to say is that, just like interaction with the Higgs Field gives mass to a particle, similarly, according to my theory, interaction with the Space Field will give a particle space (dimensions) while the Time Field will make the particle perceive time! In short, in this theory, I propose the existence of a Time Field and a Space Field.

In his General Theory of Relativity, Einstein showed how time is relative. For some bodies, time moves faster, and for other, it moves slowly. The Interstellar fans will know what I mean to say! Now, why does that happen? My theory can propose an answer. More a particle interacts with the Higgs Field, the heavier it is. Similarly, more a particle interacts with the field of time, the faster time moves for that particle. Meaning to say, if A and B are two particles, and A undergoes greater interaction with Time Field as compared to B, then time for A will move faster with respect to B. 

Similarly, more a particle interacts with Space Field, the bigger it is! Though, we must remember here, that this applies to microparticles only, the fundamental particles which make up our world. But now, you must be thinking, that okay, so these fields do exist, then what?

The interaction of these fields itself create the properties of matter. When the Space Field, the Time Field and the Higgs Field interact, then the matter gets its fundamental properties: it acquires mass (due to interaction with Higgs field), has some space (due to interaction with the space field) and perceives time (due to interaction with Time Field).  

So, we know that if a particle does not interact with Higgs Field, then it is massless. But what if a particle does not react with the Time Field? YES, then the particle will not perceive time! Photons travel at the speed of light, and theoretically at that speed, time slows down to such an extent that time theoretically STOPS for photons. Photon experience no time. Hence, this may very well be an evidence that photons do not interact with the time field.  

A particle travelling at the speed of light when enters the higgs field and interacts, some of its kinetic energy gets converted to its mass, and so, the particle no longer moves with the speed of light, and so, it starts perceiving time. Thus, for a particle to interact with the field of time, it should definitely lose its kinetic energy if it is travelling at the speed of light. Hence, we can conclude, that certain amount of energy will be required to make time speed faster or slower for a body! This is the concept which I think can eventually lead to making a Time Machine, my ultimate dream!

Lots of stuff to think about in this post, let us leave the rest for the next month's post! After understanding this concept, you might want to know how this theory is going to change our perception about the universe we know about. Well, keep your curiosity levels high, and wait for the next post!