dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaConnectivity and the Origin of Inertia
| Authors | L. J. Nickisch, Jules Mollere |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | physics/0205086 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0205086 |
Abstract
Newton's Second Law defines inertial mass as the ratio of the applied force on an object to the responding acceleration of the object (viz., F=ma). Objects that exhibit finite accelerations under finite forces are described as being "massive'' and this mass has usually been considered to be an innate property of the particles composing the object. However mass itself is never directly measured. It is inertia, the reaction of the object to impressed forces, that is measured. We show that the effects of inertia are equally well explained as a consequence of the vacuum fields acting on massless particles travelling in geodesic motion. In this approach, the vacuum fields in the particle's history define the curvature of the particle's spacetime. The metric describing this curvature implies a transformation to Minkowski spacetime, which we call the Connective transformation. Application of the Connective transformation produces the usual effects of inertia when observed in Minkowski spacetime, including hyperbolic motion in a static electric field (above the vacuum) and uniform motion following an impulse. In the case of the electromagnetic vacuum fields, the motion of the massless charge is a helical motion that can be equated to the particle spin of quantum theory. This spin has the properties expected from quantum theory, being undetermined until "measured'' by applying a field, and then being found in either a spin up or spin down state. Furthermore, the zitterbewegung of the charge is at the speed of light, again in agreement with quantum theory. Connectivity also allows for pair creation as the Connective transformation can transform positive time intervals in the particle spacetime to negative time intervals in Minkowski spacetime.
{
"annotation_id": "165469db-7636-49c7-b755-5f59f9af5d5a",
"date_created": "2026-03-02T18:00:39.658000Z",
"date_modified": "2026-03-02T18:00:39.658000Z",
"file_hash": "8f08510bf7389747d07d92f4ca16235b48f37fb28344805bc9145e7962b222cf",
"private": false,
"record": {
"abstract": "Newton\u0027s Second Law defines inertial mass as the ratio of the applied force\non an object to the responding acceleration of the object (viz., F=ma). Objects\nthat exhibit finite accelerations under finite forces are described as being\n\"massive\u0027\u0027 and this mass has usually been considered to be an innate property\nof the particles composing the object. However mass itself is never directly\nmeasured. It is inertia, the reaction of the object to impressed forces, that\nis measured. We show that the effects of inertia are equally well explained as\na consequence of the vacuum fields acting on massless particles travelling in\ngeodesic motion. In this approach, the vacuum fields in the particle\u0027s history\ndefine the curvature of the particle\u0027s spacetime. The metric describing this\ncurvature implies a transformation to Minkowski spacetime, which we call the\nConnective transformation. Application of the Connective transformation\nproduces the usual effects of inertia when observed in Minkowski spacetime,\nincluding hyperbolic motion in a static electric field (above the vacuum) and\nuniform motion following an impulse. In the case of the electromagnetic vacuum\nfields, the motion of the massless charge is a helical motion that can be\nequated to the particle spin of quantum theory. This spin has the properties\nexpected from quantum theory, being undetermined until \"measured\u0027\u0027 by applying\na field, and then being found in either a spin up or spin down state.\nFurthermore, the zitterbewegung of the charge is at the speed of light, again\nin agreement with quantum theory. Connectivity also allows for pair creation as\nthe Connective transformation can transform positive time intervals in the\nparticle spacetime to negative time intervals in Minkowski spacetime.",
"arxiv_id": "physics/0205086",
"authors": [
"L. J. Nickisch",
"Jules Mollere"
],
"categories": [
"physics.gen-ph"
],
"title": "Connectivity and the Origin of Inertia",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0205086"
},
"schema_id": "dorsal/arxiv",
"source": {
"execution_id": "15e9d4cc-0e08-45d5-ab16-9e9c0b0025e8",
"id": "arXiv Dataset IDs",
"type": "Model",
"variant": "snapshot-2026-03-01",
"version": "0.1.0"
},
"user_id": 1000002
}