Could All Matter Be Curved Space Itself?

[CosmicVoyager]

Greetings,

I read a lot. It is often repetitious. Occasionally I read an idea or way of looking at something that I had not read before.

In one book, I read the matter did not curve space, but rather, matter *is* curved space. This is a paradigm shift in the way of thinking about matter.

Could it be that all particles and forces are not in space, but are rather curves, twists, or distortions in space itself? So that all there is is space?

Could all phenomena be different kinds of geometry interacting in different ways?

Thanks

 

[Drakkith]

Is it possible? Maybe. No one can say for sure yet. I know there are several theories I've heard of that say something kind of like this, but as far as I know mainstream science does not support this.

 

[Chalnoth]

Even in string theory, the particles that make up normal matter are rather distinct from the particles that make up gravity (curved space). So I doubt that this idea holds much water, except perhaps as an analogy.

 

[Chronos]

Matter as a form of condensed space makes sense, but, raises more questions than it solves. Foremost, it does a terrible job explaining gravity.

 

[ApplePion]

Greetings,

I read a lot. It is often repetitious. Occasionally I read an idea or way of looking at something that I had not read before.

In one book, I read the matter did not curve space, but rather, matter *is* curved space. This is a paradigm shift in the way of thinking about matter.

Could it be that all particles and forces are not in space, but are rather curves, twists, or distortions in space itself? So that all there is is space?

Could all phenomena be different kinds of geometry interacting in different ways?

Thanks

The viewpoint you express is a very good viewpoint, and has a name "geometrodynamics".

There is a technical error though in what you said. A region of spacetime can have curvature without there being matter. Matter is not curvature. The curvature is something called the Riemann Tensor. Matter is is stuff that is (sort of) sums of components of the Riemann Tensor. You can have a nonb-zero Riemann Curvature Tensor where the relevants sum is zero, and thus you can have curvature in spacetime where there is no matter.

The following approximate description should explain the situation in a concrete way. The curvature tensor is much like first derivatives of the gravitational field--sort of like tidal forces. Since the Earth produces an (approx) inverse squared gravitational force, the radial derivatives go as the inverse of the radius cubed. Thus in the vacuum region around the Earth there is a curvature that goes as (r)^(-3). So there is curvature in the vacuum. The mass goes as the SUM of the derivative in the x direction of the x component of the gravitational field plus the derivative in the y direction of the y component of the gravitational field plus the derivative in the z direction of the z component of the gravitational field--*this* quantity corresponds to the Newtonian del squared phi (where phi is the gravitational potential) and vanishes in the vacuum.