Weightlessness in free fall, seen by Einstein in a flash in 1907, was “the happiest thought of my life” as he always said. It implies that gravity can be replaced by ordinary acceleration and hence can be understood from first principles using his then two years old theory of special relativity.

Twelve revolutionary implications follow. They all derive from the following simple abstract scenario described by Einstein: A light ray is ascending inside a constantly accelerating long rocketship in outer space, from the bottom to the tip. During this finite traveling time, the ship itself is picking up speed. That is all. The rest is implications:

# 1) When the ascending light with its intrinsic finite speed c arrives at the tip, the tip is receding at a constant velocity from the point of origin of the light. So a constant Doppler effect applies. Hence the temporal wavelength of a laser beam arriving upstairs is elongated. This is the famous GRAVITATIONAL REDSHIFT (Einstein).

# 2) The elongated wavelength of the photons emitted downstairs implies that their constant energy is lower there from the beginning since nothing happens to them on the way. This is the GRAVITATIONAL ENERGY REDUCTION OF LIGHT (Einstein).

# 3) The clocks downstairs do not only appear to be ticking slower when watched from above, they actually tick slower. The two ticking rates stand in a permanent ratio (there is a bijection between upper and lower time). Therefore when an upper clock is lowered and then hauled-up again, it is delayed. This is the GRAVITATIONAL TWIN PARADOX.

# 4) The spatial wavelength of a laser beam arriving upstairs is elongated in parallel with its temporal wavelength (# 1). This is the GRAVITATIONAL SIZE INCREASE.

# 5) The ratio “spatial wavelength over temporal wavelength” is preserved downstairs. This is the LOCAL CONSTANCY OF THE SPEED OF LIGHT c IN GRAVITY (Einstein).

# 6) The energy-reduced light downstairs (# 2) implies that particles that are created downstairs out of locally normal-appearing but energy-reduced photons, are – via quantum electrodynamics (imagine a time-inverted PET scan installed downstairs) – reduced in their rest mass. Hence all particles locally at rest downstairs are rest-mass reduced by the gravitational redshift factor. This is the GRAVITATIONAL REST-MASS REDUCTION.

# 7) Since the rest-mass-to-charge ratio is a universal constant for every particle class and corresponding type of charge, the gravitational rest mass reduction (# 6) possesses a corollary. This is the GRAVITATIONAL CHARGE REDUCTION.

# 8) The reduced rest mass of all objects located downstairs (# 6) implies – via quantum mechanics – that the gravitational size increase (# 4) which affects all lengths downstairs is as real as the gravitational time slowdown (# 3). Hence the ratio “spatial wavelength (# 4) over temporal wavelength (# 1)” is not only a local but also a global constant. This is the GLOBAL CONSTANCY OF THE SPEED OF LIGHT c IN GAVITY.

# 9) The transversal speed of light c APPEARS TO BE REDUCED by the redshift factor valid downstairs, when watched from upstairs (Einstein).

# 10) The transversal speed of light c APPEARS TO BE INCREASED by the blueshift factor valid upstairs, when watched from downstairs.

# 11) All ten effects are LOCALLY MASKED (as Einstein saw with his own points # 1, 2, 5, 9).

# 12) Of the six new “young-Einstein corollaries” (# 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10), one (# 8) is the most astounding. For it implies the EXISTENCE OF A GLOBAL–c TRANSFORM OF GENERAL RELATIVITY.

The latter equation has yet to be written down explicitly except for a special case (the re-written Schwarzschild metric). The implied new global constancy of c is responsible that all globally expanding solutions and all gravitational-wave solutions of the Einstein equation as written so far lose their physical status. Therefore, the seven added corollaries (# 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12) do, in conjunction with Einstein’s five original happy findings (# 1, 2, 5, 9, 11), change the face of gravitation theory while at the same time making it compatible with quantum mechanics. (For J.O.R.)

The Happiest Thought of Einstein’s Life is even Happier (A Christmas Carol)

Otto E. Rossler, Faculty of Science, University of Tübingen, Auf der Morgenstelle 8, 72076 Tübingen, Germany

Abstract

Einstein’s happiest thought as he always said – weightlessness in free fall and hence usefulness of an imaginary rocketship for understanding gravity – has further implications if you look at it with the full attention of a child. Beside clock rate, size and mass and charge are miraculously transformed along, as every PET san confirms.

(December 24, 2013)

You are alone in outer space in a long-long rocketship with its neverstopping noiseless engine. A beamer at the bottom sends a steady laser beam up to you at the tip. The light then arrives at you with a longer spacing in between its wave crests. For while it travelled up at its constant speed, the tip along with you picked up speed relative to the emission point. So the wave crests reach you with a longer spacing.

This is the famous fairy-like tale of the “gravitational redshift” envisioned by Einstein which every child learns about in school. And the GPS satellites in the sky confirm it every day – that our terrestrial clocks, ultimately based on the counting of light’s wave crests, tick slower down here. Twinkle, twinkle little star – you twinkle different where we are.

The wave crests generated down here where we are are wider-spaced, not only in time but also in space. For light of a longer temporal wavelength also has a proportionally elongated spatial wavelength. Hence we are also taller down here than the people in the space station are, and broader. Since the emporal and the spatial spacings are increased in parallel, the ratio space over time – the speed of light – is a global and not just a local constant.

Not so for the adults. They claim that the spatial wavelengths are not increased. This is something you have to believe us, they say, because we are the grownups. Yet on one special day of the year, the children are taken seriously when they are asking the “why?”-question. And, lo and behold, the adults start stuttering. Einstein fell silent on the topic of gravity for more than three years when seeing no way to rescue the global constancy of the speed of light c – because Schwinger’s quantum electrodynamics still lay in the distant future. Schwinger says implicitly that the slowed-down clocks have a so much lower mass owing to the interconvertibility of light and particles. This makes all objects as much larger downstairs as their clocks tick are slower. Hence the adults are wrong for once and Einstein’s sadness about the smudge fallen on his happiest thought was unnecessary since the smudge is gone. Every PET scan proves this to the eye because it works on sea level as well as in the Himalayas, with the more energetic photons high up and with the less energetic photons (and equivalent positron masses) below. All trained adults will confirm this to you. Therefore, you better not listen to them when they add: “But since we learned that c is no longer global, we cannot but remain loyal to that teaching.”

Why did I tell you the heart-warming story of the global c to date? It is because the adults need help from the children for once. The speed of light suddenly is no longer different on earth and in the satellite that you see glare in the evening sun. So everything has become simple again. Only Momo’s people in the gray suits have learned to live with the smudge on the shining constancy of the speed of light c discovered by the youthful Einstein. To them, a return to the original happiness of his most important thought appears blocked forever.

Light – Akhenaton’s light – is a revelation still, with its universal speed added to its shining majesty after more than three millennia by the young Einstein. That speed is given to each individual person as a private possession. This mysterious present now stands there anew in its undiminished glory. The happiest thought of a single person turns out to have been so unimaginably happy that even the discoverer was too modest to believe so during his lifetime. Now, on this Christmas day, we got the full mystery back.

For J.O.R.