mynovelweb Chapter 13: The Law of the Speed of Light
Chapter 13: The Law of the Speed of Light
The redshift effect, also known as the Doppler effect, can be used to measure the distance to extremely distant celestial objects. Previous human observations showed that all galaxies are moving away from us, and the farther away a galaxy is, the faster it is moving away. This is the famous Hubble's Law, and its underlying principle is the expansion of the universe. This "redshift" effect can be detected by spectral analysis of the light from distant celestial objects. Stellar spectra contain dark lines, which are absorption lines caused by the absorption of certain types of elements in the light emitted by the source. The faster a galaxy is moving away from us, the more pronounced the wavelength shift is, resulting in a redshift in the spectrum. Based on Hubble's Law, it can be found that the farther away a galaxy is, the greater the redshift in its spectrum. The electromagnetic wave signal with the largest redshift currently detected originates from 138 billion light-years away. In other words, this is the oldest light that humans can currently observe, which also reveals, to some extent, the age of the universe itself. For the past 138 billion years, the universe has been continuously expanding—and at a very rapid rate. Taking this factor into account, astronomers' calculations show that the ancient celestial bodies that emitted light from 138 billion light-years away are now approximately 465 billion light-years away due to the expansion of the universe. This figure is currently the best estimate of the radius of the observable universe. Multiplying this figure by one gives the diameter of the observable universe, approximately 930 billion light-years. Around 2016, Mihan Vadayan and colleagues at Oxford University analyzed data on known celestial bodies in the observable universe, attempting to uncover the true shape of the entire universe. After using computer algorithms to mine meaningful patterns in the data, they obtained a new estimate. The calculations show that the size of the entire universe is approximately 250 times that of the observable universe.
Regardless of the size of the observable universe, these data are based on the constancy of the speed of light. However, due to the existence of the speed of light barrier, human observation needs to be re-examined and supported by new theories.
The second report is the report on the law of the speed of light proposed by Academician Wenming. The following is the main content.
The Four Laws of the Speed of Light:
Theorem 1: For matter in an isolated system's spatial domain, if the system does not exchange energy and matter with other systems, the speed of light of matter in the isolated system's spatial domain depends on the energy density (directly proportional) and the matter density (inversely proportional) of the system's spatial domain.
Theorem 2: Similar to the "entropy increase principle" of the second law of thermodynamics for humans on Earth, the speed of light has a "light decrease principle", that is, within the spatial domain of an isolated system, the speed of light will decrease monotonically with time;
Theorem 3: If the speed of light of matter in the spatial domains of two isolated systems is the same, then they must also be on the same time axis.
Theorem 4: For a three-dimensional spatial domain of a system, C^2 = k * ΨE / Ψm, where C is the speed of light of matter in the three-dimensional spatial domain of the system, ΨE is the energy density of the three-dimensional spatial domain of the system, Ψm is the matter density of the three-dimensional spatial domain of the system, ΨE / Ψm is defined as the density wave, and k is the degree of energy and matter exchange between the three-dimensional spatial domain of the system and other three-dimensional spatial domains, i.e., the interaction factor. For the three-dimensional spatial domain of an isolated system, k = 1.
The four laws of the speed of light presuppose that the Big Bang created our universe. In the early stages of the Big Bang, matter existed only as fundamental particles such as neutrons, protons, electrons, photons, and neutrinos. As the temperature decreased and matter cooled, atoms, atomic nuclei, and molecules gradually formed, eventually combining to form ordinary gases. These gases condensed into nebulae, which further formed various stars and galaxies, ultimately creating the universe we see today.
At its initial, dense, and incandescent singularity, the universe possessed extremely high energy. Due to this extremely high energy density and extremely low matter density, the initial expansion of the universe occurred at a speed exceeding that of light. After the Big Bang, the universe continued to expand, with energy density decreasing and energy continuously creating matter, leading to an increase in matter density. This evolution represents a decrease in energy density and an increase in matter density; therefore, the intrinsic speed of light in this universe monotonically decreases over time.
If we consider this universe as an isolated system, then the first, second, and third laws of the speed of light hold true. If other universes exist, then the fourth law of the speed of light is guaranteed to be valid. Extending the situation of one or more universes to one or more system spatial domains (i.e., the light-speed plane space or light-speed spatial domain as discussed below), the four laws of the speed of light also apply.
Note: The speed of light in the universe is called the intrinsic speed of light, and the speed of light in different spatial regions is called the speed of light in the spatial domain (or the speed of light of matter in the spatial domain). Because the intrinsic speed of light in the universe decreases monotonically with time, the speed of light in all spatial domains in the universe decreases monotonically with time.
Based on the Big Bang theory and the four laws of light, some interesting conclusions can be drawn:
Due to its expansion, the universe will eventually reach an absolute equilibrium of the speed of light for all space (density waves are non-zero constants), or the speed of light will decrease to zero over time (density waves are zero), and the universe will eventually become lifeless or die.
Since the fundamental particles of energy and matter are based on quanta (states), the decrease in the intrinsic speed of light in the universe over time is not strictly continuous, but rather jumps between boundaries. Just like atomic energy levels, there are light speed planes. Based on this, the universe can be divided into different light speed space regions (light speed space domains).
The speed of light plane has the effect of "filtering and cutting off the frequency" of the speed of light. That is to say, if a beam of light travels from the speed of light space region A to the speed of light space region B at the speed of light c1, its speed of light is filtered and cut off, changing to the speed of light c2 in the speed of light space region B.
For a spatial region (vacuum domain) between two different light speed planes, if the speed of light changes and the change is continuous, then there is an abnormal space (another space, such as space folds) or foreign matter (such as the presence of a massive object) between these two vacuum domains.
If the intrinsic speed of light is the same in two spatial domains, then the time in these two spatial domains is the same relative to the time of the Big Bang. In other words, worlds in the same light speed plane have the same time.
If an advanced civilization were capable of faster-than-light travel and wished to return to the past, or to jump from a lower-speed-of-light plane to a higher-speed-of-light plane, then according to corollary four, at least one speed-of-light plane (world) or the jumper himself would change. The course of events in this speed-of-light plane or the change in the jumper himself would depend on the degree and magnitude of the impact of the jump. Therefore, faster-than-light travel is generally chosen to begin in a vacuum domain and then jump to another vacuum domain, thus avoiding the impact of the faster-than-light jump on one of the speed-of-light planes or the jumper himself.
The methods to accelerate the speed of light in a spatial domain to a lower level (or destroy this dimensional world) can be either energy extraction (expelling some or all of the energy in the light-speed dimensional space domain into the vacuum domain) or material filling (filling this dimensional world with a large amount of external matter).
A black hole is a region of extremely high density waves, making it a kind of hypersonic travel channel (this hypersonic travel has a de facto faster-than-light effect). We can use natural or artificial black holes for hypersonic travel. The distance traveled (the light-speed plane space we arrive in, whether it's a high-light-speed plane or a low-light-speed plane) and our position on the time axis depend on the properties of the black hole and the magnitude of its density waves.
Classical theory posits that the universe is isotropic, with matter uniformly distributed across large-scale cosmic spaces. However, according to the first corollary, the universe is only isotropic when the intrinsic speed of light reaches a constant, at which point matter is uniformly distributed. Currently, the universe is anisotropic; the lower the intrinsic speed of light in a given region, the lower its density wave, meaning the greater the matter density in that region, and vice versa.
Relativity states that the speed of light is independent of the observer's velocity relative to the light source. That is, the speed of light measured in inertial frames of reference that are stationary and moving relative to the light source is the same. The speed of light is the same as any other velocity added to it. The composition of velocities does not obey the laws of classical mechanics, but rather the relativistic laws of velocity composition. In fact, according to the four laws of light in this report, a corollary is that for objects within the same light speed plane, the composition of velocities follows the relativistic laws of velocity composition, while for objects in different light speed planes, the composition of velocities follows the laws of classical mechanics.
The law of conservation of energy still applies; each photon possesses the same energy, and the energy of a photon is only related to its frequency. This means that the frequency remains constant, and since the color of light is related to its frequency, the color also remains constant. The speed of light is frequency multiplied by wavelength. If the speed of light decreases while the frequency remains constant, then the wavelength must become shorter. Due to the decrease in the speed of light and the shortening of the wavelength, the visible spectrum we see within the light speed barrier of our solar system appears larger overall. In other words, we cannot see visible light outside the light speed barrier. When we break through the light speed barrier and enter a faster light speed plane, the visible spectrum we see in this plane appears smaller overall due to the increased wavelength. This means that light that we cannot see within the light speed barrier will be "seen" as red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and violet in the faster light speed plane.
Zhou Yuan spent a lot of time and effort trying to understand the report, after all, it was a groundbreaking theory, no less impressive than Einstein's theory of relativity.