overview

POSTSCRIPT:

The 4 asymmetries associated with the charges of the "4 forces of physics": are:
1) Electric Charge - the asymmetry of our "matter-only" universe. The antimatter which should exist to balance the electric charges of matter was all annihilated during the "Big Bang". Long-range electric charges are fundamentally intended to allow particles of matter and antimatter to find each other in space and annihilate, restoring the symmetry state of the light which created them. Light is the field vector of electric charge, in this case protecting its own symmetric energy state. It is thought that a mysterious asymmetry in the weak force resulted in the creation of more matter than antimatter during the "Big Bang", hence preventing the electric force from completing its symmetry-conserving functions (annihilations), which now are left for the "fail safe" gravitational force to accomplish.

2) Color Charge (Gell-Mann strong force) - the asymmetry of fractional charges. Color charges permanently confine quarks to whole quantum units of charge, preventing fractional charges (of several kinds) from making charge conservation difficult/impossible. Color charge is a short-range force which grows stronger as the quarks (within a baryon) separate from one another, increasing the threat to whole-charge unity, but relaxing as those quarks come together, reducing the threat to unitary quantum charge and hence practical/efficient charge conservation. This is just the behavior we would expect if an elementary lepton were somehow fractured into three parts, but required to present a facade of whole quantum unit charge to the outside world. This is in fact what happened to the "leptoquarks" during the earliest moments of the "Big Bang". This charge is peculiar to baryons/mesons, is carried by "gluons", and does not affect the larger world beyond quarks. A secondary form of the strong force binds protons and neutrons in compound atomic nuclei and is carried by mesons (Yukawa strong force). The Yukawa strong force, which is based on a "least energy" principle of sub-atomic binding, can be broken by supplying sufficient energy; the Gell-Mann strong force, which is based instead upon the symmetry principle of whole quantum unit charge conservation, cannot be broken.

3) Identity Charge (weak force) - the asymmetry of identity vs the anonymity of photons. All photons are alike, but elementary particles can be distinguished from photons and between leptonic species (electron, muon, tau, leptoquark, antiparticles, and neutrinos). The massive leptons carry "hidden" identity charges which are always balanced by (nearly massless) neutrinos/antineutrinos. Neutrinos are the explicit, "bare", free form of identity charge, balancing the "hidden" charges of the massive leptons. Neutrino mass is still unknown, but may be as little as one-millionth that of an electron. The mass of leptoquark neutrinos, however, which balance the hidden charges of baryons (protons, neutrons, etc.), may be quite large, and are suspected as the source of the mysterious "dark matter". Identity charge is necessary to enable recognition and hence the conservation/replication/annihilation of elementary particles. "Identity" is the most fundamental charge of the weak force information field leading to the Periodic Table of the Elements. Hence the lowly neutrino, the least of all material charges, is the most important. For without the neutrino's function as an "alternative charge carrier" for identity charge, our asymmetric universe could not have been born while still conserving charge.

4) Gravitational Charge ("location" charge - gravity) - the asymmetry of undistributed mass-energy vs the symmetry of photon energy distributed everywhere in space simultaneously. Gravity involves both a symmetry debt (concentrations of mass energy) and an entropy debt, or defect/deficit. It is this combination, in addition to its extreme weakness, that makes the long-range gravitational force so difficult to understand.

First, the symmetry debt: When massive particles are created in a light-filled space (as during the "Big Bang"), they break a fundamental spatial/energetic symmetry:
1) All points (locations) in a light-filled space are equivalent, there is nothing to distinguish one location from another. This symmetry is obviously broken by the intrusion of a massive immobile particle, whose whereabouts can be distinguished from all other locations in the vacuum of space, even if that "vacuum" is filled with photons. Furthermore, the energy of photons is distributed equitably throughout the spatial domain, due to intrinsic motion "c", which vanishes the time dimension and the spatial dimension in the direction of motion (length or distance). Hence the photon has forever to go nowhere, the basis of its "infinite" motion/speed and hence the even distribution of its energy everywhere, simultaneously. Obviously, this symmetry of energy distribution is broken badly by the non-moving, massive particle whose energy content (e=mcc) is concentrated in a single location.

It is indeed interesting to see how spacetime itself reacts to this broken symmetry, as the gravitational field, from all other locations in space, points directly to the center of mass of the offending particle, in effect shouting: "Here it is - the asymmetry in our midst!" As if this were not enough to get your attention, the gravitational field will actually carry you bodily to the particle and "rub your nose in it". The reason why is that gravity is urging you to pay the symmetry debt, and if you were an appropriate particle of antimatter, you would indeed annihilate with your antipartner, return to all-symmetric light, and the symmetry debt would be paid and the offending particle with its undistributed concentration of mass-energy would vanish. From this we see that gravity acts as a "fail-safe" backup symmetry-keeping system, in case electric charge - the primary symmetry-keeping system - should for some reason fail to do its job.

However, since all the antimatter was annihilated during the "Big Bang", gravity cannot perform its "fail-safe" mission, at least not right away. Gravity will get the job done in the end, but it will require time and Hawking's "quantum radiance" of black holes. The great thing about symmetry debts is they may be repaid on any schedule, so long as their permanence is guaranteed by the law of charge conservation, and there exists a time dimension in which these debts can be held or "stored". The gravity we feel on our planet is a case in point: weak planetary gravity is simply paying the "interest" on matter's symmetry debt, creating a time dimension in which the debt can be held until it will be "retired" or paid in full (as by annihilation with antimatter). In stars, strong gravity actually "pays down" the mass principal of the symmetry debt by converting bound to free energy, that is, mass to light. In this latter case, both symmetry and entropy debts are "paid down" simultaneously.

2) The entropy debt/defect of mass and gravity:
Space filled with photons (such as existed after the "Big Bang") is expanding at "velocity c" due to the intrinsic, entropic motion of light (photons).
A massive particle, however, has no intrinsic spatial motion and hence cannot participate in the expanding and cooling entropic spatial conservation domain of light. Entropy, however is not an optional function of energy, it is the bedrock of energy conservation. Space is expanding due to the intrinsic (entropic) motion of the photons because entropy demands that it do so. Photons cannot help moving and expanding because that "intrinsic" (entropic) motion is built into them, part and parcel of their energy endowment. The conservation function of entropy is to prevent the same energy from being used twice to do the same work (forbidding the "perpetual motion machine"). Somehow, this entropy defect of the non-moving massive particle must be rectified - the particle must be given an entropy drive and domain which is the equivalent of the photon's intrinsic motion and expanding space. Nature gives the massive particle an entropy drive and domain by providing it (at birth) with a time charge/dimension, a one-way moving dimension which creates "history", the temporal analog of space, and an entropic domain for non-moving massive particles, the equivalent of space for photons. Hence we have space as an entropic conservation domain for free forms of electromagnetic (EM) energy, and history as an entropic conservation domain for bound forms of EM energy. Spacetime (created by gravity) functions as a combined entropic conservation domain for both free and bound forms of EM energy.

Massive particles are born (created) as 4-dimensional particles, because they are born with a time charge (gravitational "location" charge), which accommodates their need for an entropy drive/ domain. The intrinsic historic motion of the time charge, which is the analog of the intrinsic spatial motion of the photon, creates an historic entropic conservation domain for the massive particle, the analog of the photon's spatial entropic conservation domain, in which massive particles can age and decay and otherwise suffer the enervating attrition of time. Photons are two-dimensional, with their "intrinsic" (entropic) motion ("velocity c") creating a 3-dimensional spatial conservation domain; similarly, massive particles are three dimensional, with their "intrinsic" (entropic) motion ("velocity T") creating a 4-dimensional historic conservation domain. The one-way intrinsic motion of time (which is required by causality, energy conservation, and entropy) is at right angles to all three spatial dimensions, into the historical realm, and is the reason why time can function as a "location" charge in space. The intrinsic motion of time pulls space along with it, creating the spacetime flow of a gravitational field. A gravitational field is the spatial consequence of the intrinsic motion of time. Because space cannot enter the one-dimensional historical time line, space self-annihilates at the gravitational center of mass, revealing a metrically equivalent temporal component, which immediately travels into history, pulling more space behind it, etc., forever. Time and gravity induce each other, somewhat as electric and magnetic fields induce each other. The active principle of gravity's "location" charge is time itself. (See: "A Description of Gravity".)

We have to ask what is gravity driving at? What will satisfy it? What will make it vanish? When is the gravitational charge ("location") cancelled, the gravitational symmetry debt repaid? In the case of electric charge, we know the answers to these questions, and they must be similar in the case of gravity, on the assumption that all charges are symmetry debts. Electric charge seeks antimatter, seeks anticharge, seeks annihilation to fully repay its symmetry debt and vanish. Antimatter will satisfy the gravitational symmetry debt too, but it is in short supply due to the Big Bang annihilation asymmetry. Lacking antimatter, gravity remains unsatisfied, persisting in its apparently insatiable quest to consume more and more matter. The first success (in terms of symmetry conservation, or debt repayment) of this search is with stars, when enough matter and gravitational force are concentrated in one place to induce nuclear fusion and convert some mass to light, partially repaying the gravitational symmetry debt ("location charge"), because light, having intrinsic motion "c" (unlike immobile matter), is symmetrically distributed throughout its entropic spatial domain (simultaneously everywhere). The progression goes from stars to supernovas to white dwarves, to neutron stars, and finally ends at black holes. All condensed matter stages before the black hole are partial - always the baryons remain, due to the stubborn conservation of "baryon number". But the black hole solves even this hard nut (this is just why black holes are required), for with "proton decay" taking place at the central singularity, the black hole is filled with nothing but light (note that light inside a black hole is bound energy with a specific location and so in this case - as in atoms - produces a gravitational field). "Hawking Radiation" finishes the job, completely evaporating the black hole, mass, and gravitational field alike, converting them to free light in complete satisfaction of Noether's Theorem and repayment of the gravitational "location" symmetry debt and charge.

As gravity increases its grip, there is a steady progression of condensed matter states, gradually replacing the electromagnetic entropy domain of space and light with the gravitational entropy domain of time and matter. Gravity takes over all the functions of the other forces, replacing their field vectors with its own. First the electron shell is collapsed in the white dwarf, then the electrons are crushed into protons forming a neutron star, finally the black hole condition is reached, the final triumph of the gravitational entropy domain of matter and time over the electromagnetic spatial entropy domain of space and light. The triumph is this: in the black hole, light stands still and matter moves with "intrinsic" (gravitational) "velocity c" - the exact reverse of the electromagnetic entropy domain. Matter and antimatter are reunited again via the mechanism of "Hawking Radiation" and the gravitational symmetry debt is repaid via matter-antimatter annihilation. The black hole condition is what gravity is driving at, because only through the black hole can baryons be destroyed, either by "proton decay" at the central singularity, or by "Hawking Radiation" (matter-antimatter annihilation) at the event horizon. The black hole is black because the gravitational temporal metric has completely replaced the electromagnetic spatial metric. See: "Nodes of the Gravimetric Series".

However, even the black hole keeps producing gravity, and why not? It still represents a huge concentration of undistributed, immobile mass-energy (as seen from the "outside"), even though (as seen from the "inside") that debt has been paid via the establishment of the 100% gravitational metric and the vanishing of the electromagnet metric - clocks stop, meter sticks shrink to nothing, photons stop while massive particles move with intrinsic motion "c" (because g = c at the event horizon), etc. So is the debt paid or not? Looking from the "outside", no; looking from the "inside", yes. The problem is really just the "slow pay" of the black hole - it takes practically forever for a large black hole to "pay up", even though the "deal is signed and sealed". So until such time as the "deal is actually delivered" (the debt is really retired from the perspective of the outside observer and universe - via Hawking Radiation), the black hole will continue to produce a gravitational field. Even so, because time stops at the event horizon, Hawking Radiation is not slow at all in the reference frame of the black hole, but actually appears to be an instantaneous matter-antimatter explosion. Finally, it turns out that the "slow pay" of black holes has a beneficial effect in terms of symmetry-conservation for the "outside" universe: during matter's "death spiral" into a black hole, as much as 40% of its mass can be converted to light, a rate of conversion far higher than for any other astrophysical process (other than matter-antimatter annihilation itself).

Synopsis of Plato's "Symposium"
(quoted from the Encyclopedia Britannica 15th ed. 1976, Vol. 14, page 535)

"The main argument [of Plato's "Symposium"] may be summarized thus: Eros is a reaching out of the soul to a hoped-for good. The object is eternal beauty. In its crudest form, love for a beautiful person is really a passion to achieve immortality through offspring by that person. A more spiritual form is the aspiration to combine with a kindred soul to give birth to sound institutions and rules of life. Still more spiritual is the endeavor to enrich philosophy and science through noble dialogue. The insistent seeker may then suddenly descry a supreme beauty that is the cause and source of all the beauties so far discerned. The philosopher's path thus culminates in a supreme beatific vision of the "Form of Good", the supreme Form that stands at the head of all others."

Tetragrammaton

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