Fields permeating spacetime - aether?

[jnorman]

i recall einstein idicating that there was no longer a reason to posit an aether after special relativity was published, but later wrote a short paper indicating that there was, in effect, an aether after all. ref - http://www.aetherometry.com/Electronic_Publications/Science/einstein_aether_and_relativity.php

so, is he indicating that there is an electromagnetic field which permeates spacetime, and that photons are simply excitations of that EM field? is that the erstwhile "aether" now?

do all fields likewise permeate spacetime, such as the gravitational field, and is the graviton an excitation of the gravitational field?

how many fields are there according to the standard model, and do they all permeate spacetime?

is there anything other than fields, considering that all particles are merely illusionary manifestations of underlying fields? are all particle interactions the result of interacting fields?

thanks.

 

[Whovian]

So, is he indicating that there is an electromagnetic field which permeates spacetime, and that photons are simply excitations of that EM field? is that the erstwhile "aether" now?

Nope. This is from misinterpreting the analogy and taking it too far, methinks.

 

[dipstik]

according to quantum field theory, which the standard model uses, yes... there is a dirac field, a gluon field, a higgs field, em field...

i'm not sure how many different fields there are, but i think quantum chromo dynamics has a field for quarks being excitations of a field the same way electrons are excitations of the dirac field.

i remmeber reading another lecture/essay he did saying if there is an aether, but it doesn't do anything that the theory doesn't already address.

 

[Mark M]

They have nothing to do with the aether. The aether was a proposed medium through which electromagnetic waves propagated. No such medium exists.