• An astrophysics paper with valid points worth a read.

    From Zachary Alexander P.@21:1/5 to All on Sun Oct 17 00:01:43 2021
    Here is the link to the paper: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-o08Dao8HJhwgJH-09vzHwvinhwbfKTOY6_gWmpXWPg/edit?usp=sharing

    Feel free to comment.

    [[Mod. note --
    The paper's title is
    "Black Holes, Neutron Stars, Fusion, Electromagnetism and Gravity"
    Google describes it as 45 pages long. It can be read online at the URL
    given, but downloads and printing are blocked.

    Some of the content may qualify as "excessively speculative" for this newsgroup.
    -- jt]]

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  • From Zachary Alexander P.@21:1/5 to All on Mon Oct 18 23:02:23 2021
    An article about Black Holes, Neutron Stars, Fusion, Electromagnetism and Gravity.

    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-o08Dao8HJhwgJH-09vzHwvinhwbfKTOY6_gWmpXWPg/edit?usp=sharing

    The article is 38 pages long in print format of font size 11.
    38 pages may seem daunting, but lot of the space is taken up by relevant images that express the ideas.
    This article is highly speculative, but for good reason since it is of things that show anomalies in the standard model.
    Take your time while reading it to give it some thought before you comment.

    As you get into it you may end up with this expression: https://c.tenor.com/5LDDKgs5UUkAAAAM/what-star-trek.gif
    Toward the end, that may change, so be prepared.

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  • From Gary Harnagel@21:1/5 to zac...@gmail.com on Mon Oct 25 15:48:52 2021
    On Tuesday, October 19, 2021 at 12:02:26 AM UTC-6, zac...@gmail.com wrote:

    An article about Black Holes, Neutron Stars, Fusion, Electromagnetism and Gravity.

    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-o08Dao8HJhwgJH-09vzHwvinhwbfKTOY6_gWmpXWPg/edit?usp=sharing

    The article is 38 pages long in print format of font size 11.
    38 pages may seem daunting, but lot of the space is taken up by
    relevant images that express the ideas.
    This article is highly speculative, but for good reason since it is of
    things that show anomalies in the
    standard model. Take your time while reading it to give it some
    thought before you comment.

    I haven't read the whole thing, only up to page 8. But I found a
    problem on the FIRST page:

    He's blaming light bending around the sun on refraction of the corona.
    He has NO calculation of how big that would be: scientists have, and
    it's not nearly big enough. Besides that, Cassini measured the angle at
    two different frequencies because refraction due to the corona is frequency-dependent. Their results disagreed with refraction on two
    counts.

    Based on this, I don't believe he thinks deeply enough. Besides, I have
    my own biases :-)

    Gary

    [Moderator's note: Indeed. I glanced over it and there are several questionable things in it. On the whole, I would say that it is too speculative. -P.H.]

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Lou@21:1/5 to h..com on Wed Jan 26 20:19:09 2022
    [[Mod. note -- I have inserted a few blank lines so as to more clearly
    mark the transitions between quoted material and what this author has
    written. -- jt]]

    On Monday, 25 October 2021 at 15:48:53 UTC+1, h..com wrote:
    On Tuesday, October 19, 2021 at 12:02:26 AM UTC-6, z...gmail.com wrote:

    An article about Black Holes, Neutron Stars, Fusion, Electromagnetism and Gravity.

    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-o08Dao8HJhwgJH-09vzHwvinhwbfKTOY6_gWmpXWPg/edit?usp=sharing

    The article is 38 pages long in print format of font size 11.
    38 pages may seem daunting, but lot of the space is taken up by
    relevant images that express the ideas.
    This article is highly speculative, but for good reason since it is of things that show anomalies in the
    standard model. Take your time while reading it to give it some
    thought before you comment.

    I haven't read the whole thing, only up to page 8. But I found a
    problem on the FIRST page:

    He's blaming light bending around the sun on refraction of the corona.
    He has NO calculation of how big that would be: scientists have, and
    it's not nearly big enough.

    This is a false assumption. The author of the paper probably didn't do
    a calculation of what the refractive index...because the density of the
    Corona and thus its refractive index isn't known! Quite how "scientists"
    did the calculations of its refractive index is the big question Gary should
    be asking.

    Besides that, Cassini measured the angle at
    two different frequencies because refraction due to the corona is frequency-dependent. Their results disagreed with refraction on two
    counts.

    Once again a problem with "scientists" deciding what the refractive
    index of the Corona is. (Even though They havent the faintest idea
    of what the density and thus refractive index of the Corona is.)

    And regarding "seperate frequency" measurements by Cassini.
    Interesting non point considering any viable comparison should be
    between two very different frequencies in simultaneous observations.
    Like radio and x ray. Which have never been made. Cassini did it
    in two almost identical radio frequencies.


    Based on this, I don't believe he thinks deeply enough. Besides, I have
    my own biases :-)

    Gary

    [Moderator's note: Indeed. I glanced over it and there are several questionable things in it. On the whole, I would say that it is too speculative. -P.H.]

    Speculative maybe,...but I see no evidence to rule it out in Gary's post.


    [[Mod. note -- The author is mistaken as to the Cassini measurements
    and their interpretation as gravitational time delays (the Shapiro effect) versus plasma delays.

    Looking at
    B Bertotti, L. Less, and P. Tortora
    "A test of general relativity using radio links with the Cassini spacecraft"
    Nature 425, 374-376
    open-access copy currently available at
    https://lorentz.leidenuniv.nl/research/vanbaal/DECEASED/ART/gr-test.pdf
    we see that Cassini actually used frequencies of 7.2 Ghz and 34.3 GHz
    (uplink) and 8.4 GHz and 32.0 GHz (downlink), which are clearly not
    "almost identical".

    Moreover, figure 2 of that paper shows that the calculated gravitational
    signal has a time variation closely matching the theoretical prediction (equation (2) of the paper), which would not be the case if the frequency shifts were actually caused by plasma delays. The interpretation as gravitational time delay is further strengthened by the consistency
    checks the authors describe in the "Method" section on p.376 of that
    paper, and by the results shown in the supplementary figure (currently available open-access on the /nature.com/ website.

    The Cassini results are also consistent with a wide range of other
    measurements of general-relativistic light-bending and time delay.
    See, for example, figure 2 of Clifford M Will's fascinating paper arXiv:1409.7812.
    -- jt]]

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    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Lou@21:1/5 to Lou on Fri Jan 28 14:12:46 2022
    On Thursday, 27 January 2022 at 04:19:12 UTC, Lou wrote:
    [[Mod. note -- I have inserted a few blank lines so as to more clearly
    mark the transitions between quoted material and what this author has written. -- jt]]

    On Monday, 25 October 2021 at 15:48:53 UTC+1, h..com wrote:
    On Tuesday, October 19, 2021 at 12:02:26 AM UTC-6, z...gmail.com wrote:

    An article about Black Holes, Neutron Stars, Fusion, Electromagnetism and Gravity.

    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-o08Dao8HJhwgJH-09vzHwvinhwbfKTOY6_gWmpXWPg/edit?usp=sharing

    The article is 38 pages long in print format of font size 11.
    38 pages may seem daunting, but lot of the space is taken up by
    relevant images that express the ideas.
    This article is highly speculative, but for good reason since it is of things that show anomalies in the
    standard model. Take your time while reading it to give it some
    thought before you comment.

    I haven't read the whole thing, only up to page 8. But I found a
    problem on the FIRST page:

    He's blaming light bending around the sun on refraction of the corona.
    He has NO calculation of how big that would be: scientists have, and
    it's not nearly big enough.
    This is a false assumption. The author of the paper probably didn't do
    a calculation of what the refractive index...because the density of the Corona and thus its refractive index isn't known! Quite how "scientists"
    did the calculations of its refractive index is the big question Gary should be asking.
    Besides that, Cassini measured the angle at
    two different frequencies because refraction due to the corona is frequency-dependent. Their results disagreed with refraction on two
    counts.
    Once again a problem with "scientists" deciding what the refractive
    index of the Corona is. (Even though They havent the faintest idea
    of what the density and thus refractive index of the Corona is.)

    And regarding "seperate frequency" measurements by Cassini.
    Interesting non point considering any viable comparison should be
    between two very different frequencies in simultaneous observations.
    Like radio and x ray. Which have never been made. Cassini did it
    in two almost identical radio frequencies.

    Based on this, I don't believe he thinks deeply enough. Besides, I have
    my own biases :-)

    Gary

    [Moderator's note: Indeed. I glanced over it and there are several questionable things in it. On the whole, I would say that it is too speculative. -P.H.]
    Speculative maybe,...but I see no evidence to rule it out in Gary's post.


    [[Mod. note -- The author is mistaken as to the Cassini measurements
    and their interpretation as gravitational time delays (the Shapiro effect) versus plasma delays.
    I wasn't disputing the assumptions about GR made in the paper.
    I was only pointing out the paper, Gary or any other source have no
    confirmed measurements of the density or refractive index of the corona.
    How then is it possible to rule out refraction..if we don't know
    what the refraction index of the corona is?

    Looking at
    B Bertotti, L. Less, and P. Tortora
    "A test of general relativity using radio links with the Cassini spacecraft" Nature 425, 374-376
    open-access copy currently available at https://lorentz.leidenuniv.nl/research/vanbaal/DECEASED/ART/gr-test.pdf
    we see that Cassini actually used frequencies of 7.2 Ghz and 34.3 GHz (uplink) and 8.4 GHz and 32.0 GHz (downlink), which are clearly not
    "almost identical".


    Almost identical is is 42 to 8 ( Cassini test radio range in millions of nano meters.)
    A good spread to test Refraction would be a spread of
    42 to 0.0000001 ( radio to x ray)

    Moreover, figure 2 of that paper shows that the calculated gravitational signal has a time variation closely matching the theoretical prediction (equation (2) of the paper), which would not be the case if the frequency shifts were actually caused by plasma delays.
    ? I see nowhere in the paper you cite or elsewhere in the published
    domain that provides conclusive and reliable in situ measurements of
    the corona, its density and refractive index. Any assumptions made
    are without substantiation.
    In fact the current best method to measure a refractive index is
    to measure how much light is bent by the medium in question.
    Is that not correct?

    The interpretation as
    gravitational time delay is further strengthened by the consistency
    checks the authors describe in the "Method" section on p.376 of that
    paper, and by the results shown in the supplementary figure (currently available open-access on the /nature.com/ website.

    Of course...but the question is not if GR can supply the correct prediction. The question is what is the measured density and refractive
    index of the corona. The answer is...no one knows.
    The Cassini results are also consistent with a wide range of other measurements of general-relativistic light-bending and time delay.
    See, for example, figure 2 of Clifford M Will's fascinating paper arXiv:1409.7812.
    -- jt]]
    If I can also point out a quote from the above cited paper (author
    Bertotti et al.) They claim only GR can correctly predict the anomalous preccession of Mercury. This is a false claim. In fact Le Verrier did
    correctly model the observed preccession of mercury by spreading
    the suns mass across its volume. Although he incorrectly assume
    the presence of the planet Vulcan, his N3 body calculations did
    spread the mass of the sun across its volume. Proving beyond
    doubt that the mass of any object like a planet is spread across
    its volume. Not confined, as Newton thought, to a singularity at its
    center. This conclusion is confirmed by experiments such as
    Schiehallion
    (It's no wonder Newton was opposed to these types of
    experiments. They contradicted his own assertion that all of the
    planets mass was located at its theoretical center)


    [[Mod. note --
    1. Since the solar corona's index of refraction is frequency-dependent,
    measuring the Shapiro delay at multiple frequencies does in fact
    allow the corona's (frequency-dependent) index of refraction to be
    calculated -- that's why Cassini used multiple frequencies!
    2. Another way to avoid contamination by solar-corona effects is to measure
    the bending of *visible* light. This is hard to do with ground-based
    experiments, but the ESA's Hipparcos satellite measured light bending
    over *the entire sky*, including regions of the sky > 90 degrees away
    from the Sun (where the effects of the solar corona are negligible).
    3. We actually know the Sun's density profile (and hence its quadrupole
    moment J_2, which is what you're referring to) very well, thanks to
    helioseismology mesaurements. You can't (correctly) model the observed
    precession of Mercury (not to mention those of Venus, Earth, and Mars,
    all of whose orbital precessions are also well-observed) using Newtonian
    gravity and the Solar mass distribution.
    4. Newton never asserted that all of a planet's (or the Sun's) mass was
    located at its center. Rather, he (correctly) calculated that the
    external gravitational field of an extended spherically symmetric mass
    distribution is the same as it would be if all the mass were located
    at the center. (Calculating the external gravitational field of an
    extended mass distribution requires calculus, which Newton invented
    in part to address this question.)
    5. Newton was well aware of the possibility of experiments such as the
    Schiehallion experiment (the measurement of the external gravitational
    field of a mountain), but mistakenly thought that the effects would
    be to small to be accurately measured. Fortunately, he was wrong.
    -- jt]]

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Lou@21:1/5 to Lou on Mon Jan 31 18:39:58 2022
    On Friday, 28 January 2022 at 22:12:50 UTC, Lou wrote:
    On Thursday, 27 January 2022 at 04:19:12 UTC, Lou wrote:
    [[Mod. note -- I have inserted a few blank lines so as to more clearly
    mark the transitions between quoted material and what this author has written. -- jt]]

    On Monday, 25 October 2021 at 15:48:53 UTC+1, h..com wrote:
    On Tuesday, October 19, 2021 at 12:02:26 AM UTC-6, z...gmail.com wrote:

    An article about Black Holes, Neutron Stars, Fusion, Electromagnetism and Gravity.

    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-o08Dao8HJhwgJH-09vzHwvinhwbfKTOY6_gWmpXWPg/edit?usp=sharing

    The article is 38 pages long in print format of font size 11.
    38 pages may seem daunting, but lot of the space is taken up by relevant images that express the ideas.
    This article is highly speculative, but for good reason since it is of things that show anomalies in the
    standard model. Take your time while reading it to give it some
    thought before you comment.

    I haven't read the whole thing, only up to page 8. But I found a
    problem on the FIRST page:

    He's blaming light bending around the sun on refraction of the corona.
    He has NO calculation of how big that would be: scientists have, and
    it's not nearly big enough.
    This is a false assumption. The author of the paper probably didn't do
    a calculation of what the refractive index...because the density of the Corona and thus its refractive index isn't known! Quite how "scientists" did the calculations of its refractive index is the big question Gary should
    be asking.
    Besides that, Cassini measured the angle at
    two different frequencies because refraction due to the corona is frequency-dependent. Their results disagreed with refraction on two counts.
    Once again a problem with "scientists" deciding what the refractive
    index of the Corona is. (Even though They havent the faintest idea
    of what the density and thus refractive index of the Corona is.)

    And regarding "seperate frequency" measurements by Cassini.
    Interesting non point considering any viable comparison should be
    between two very different frequencies in simultaneous observations.
    Like radio and x ray. Which have never been made. Cassini did it
    in two almost identical radio frequencies.

    Based on this, I don't believe he thinks deeply enough. Besides, I have my own biases :-)

    Gary

    [Moderator's note: Indeed. I glanced over it and there are several questionable things in it. On the whole, I would say that it is too speculative. -P.H.]
    Speculative maybe,...but I see no evidence to rule it out in Gary's post.


    [[Mod. note -- The author is mistaken as to the Cassini measurements
    and their interpretation as gravitational time delays (the Shapiro effect) versus plasma delays.
    I wasn't disputing the assumptions about GR made in the paper.
    I was only pointing out the paper, Gary or any other source have no
    confirmed measurements of the density or refractive index of the corona.
    How then is it possible to rule out refraction..if we don't know
    what the refraction index of the corona is?

    Looking at
    B Bertotti, L. Less, and P. Tortora
    "A test of general relativity using radio links with the Cassini spacecraft"
    Nature 425, 374-376
    open-access copy currently available at https://lorentz.leidenuniv.nl/research/vanbaal/DECEASED/ART/gr-test.pdf
    we see that Cassini actually used frequencies of 7.2 Ghz and 34.3 GHz (uplink) and 8.4 GHz and 32.0 GHz (downlink), which are clearly not
    "almost identical".

    Almost identical is is 42 to 8 ( Cassini test radio range in millions of nano meters.)
    A good spread to test Refraction would be a spread of
    42 to 0.0000001 ( radio to x ray)
    Moreover, figure 2 of that paper shows that the calculated gravitational signal has a time variation closely matching the theoretical prediction (equation (2) of the paper), which would not be the case if the frequency shifts were actually caused by plasma delays.
    ? I see nowhere in the paper you cite or elsewhere in the published
    domain that provides conclusive and reliable in situ measurements of
    the corona, its density and refractive index. Any assumptions made
    are without substantiation.
    In fact the current best method to measure a refractive index is
    to measure how much light is bent by the medium in question.
    Is that not correct?
    The interpretation as
    gravitational time delay is further strengthened by the consistency
    checks the authors describe in the "Method" section on p.376 of that
    paper, and by the results shown in the supplementary figure (currently available open-access on the /nature.com/ website.

    Of course...but the question is not if GR can supply the correct prediction. The question is what is the measured density and refractive
    index of the corona. The answer is...no one knows.
    The Cassini results are also consistent with a wide range of other measurements of general-relativistic light-bending and time delay.
    See, for example, figure 2 of Clifford M Will's fascinating paper arXiv:1409.7812.
    -- jt]]
    If I can also point out a quote from the above cited paper (author
    Bertotti et al.) They claim only GR can correctly predict the anomalous preccession of Mercury. This is a false claim. In fact Le Verrier did correctly model the observed preccession of mercury by spreading
    the suns mass across its volume. Although he incorrectly assume
    the presence of the planet Vulcan, his N3 body calculations did
    spread the mass of the sun across its volume. Proving beyond
    doubt that the mass of any object like a planet is spread across
    its volume. Not confined, as Newton thought, to a singularity at its
    center. This conclusion is confirmed by experiments such as
    Schiehallion
    (It's no wonder Newton was opposed to these types of
    experiments. They contradicted his own assertion that all of the
    planets mass was located at its theoretical center)


    [[Mod. note --
    1. Since the solar corona's index of refraction is frequency-dependent, measuring the Shapiro delay at multiple frequencies does in fact
    allow the corona's (frequency-dependent) index of refraction to be
    calculated -- that's why Cassini used multiple frequencies!
    It's not specified anywhere in the literature I read that Cassini did *not* find any frequency dependent deflection. Nor is it clear if
    the data from each frequency was collected simultaneously. An
    important proviso.
    I read the slac.standard.edu paper on the actual test data and page 2
    confirms coronal dispersion was highly variable over short periods.
    And then says...that because of this variability both 32 and 8 million
    MHZ data were combined as one for deflection analysis.
    If this is true then so much for seperate frequencies.
    And finally could refraction between 42 and
    8 million MHz be even quantifiable using Cassini?
    I would have thought that time delay due to refraction
    Between the two low frequency radio frequencies would be
    impossibly small to measure anyways.

    [[Mod. note -- The Cassini experiment did indeed measure the time delay
    in question. Quoting from the caption for supplemental figure 1 of the Bertotti et al paper cited above:
    | The complete fractional frequency shift is the sum of three parts:
    | the non-dispersive part $y_{nd}(t)$ (which includes the gravitational
    | signal) and the time dependent plasma contributions $y_\wedge(t)$ and
    | $y_\vee(t)$, proportional to the columnar electron content along the
    | beam in the up- and the downlink, respectively. With three independent
    | observables, the three quantities $y_\wedge(t)$, $y_\vee(t)$ and
    | $y_{nd}(t)$ are separately determined.
    Note particularly that last clause: "the three quantities $y_\wedge(t)$, $y_\vee(t)$ and $y_{nd}(t)$ are separately determined".
    -- jt]]

    2. Another way to avoid contamination by solar-corona effects is to measure the bending of *visible* light. This is hard to do with ground-based experiments, but the ESA's Hipparcos satellite measured light bending
    over *the entire sky*, including regions of the sky > 90 degrees away
    from the Sun (where the effects of the solar corona are negligible).
    Why would refraction not give the same inverse square relationship to
    distance that gravity has? The density gradient of the plasma from the
    corona to the farthest part of the solar wind "bubble" has to also follow
    the same inverse square relationship.

    [[Mod. note --

    1. Because there's an integration over the entire path length,
    gravitational light bending (or time delay) doesn't vary as the
    inverse square of the impact parameter (the closest distance between
    the path and the center of the Sun). As you can see from equation (1)
    of the Bertotti et al paper, the actual variation is *logarithmic* in
    the impact parameter. (There's a more detailed calculation in, for
    example, sections 7.1 and 7.2 of Clifford M Will, "Theory and Experiment
    in Gravitational Physics", 2nd edition, Cambridge U.P.)

    2. Unfortunately my wording in a previous moderator's note was sloppy:
    I wrote that "the ESA's Hipparcos satellite measured light bending
    over *the entire sky*, including regions of the sky > 90 degrees away
    from the Sun (where the effects of the solar corona are negligible)."
    That final statement is true, but I gave the wrong reason for it:
    the effects of the solar corona *on visible light* are very small
    *everywhere* in the sky, including even lines-of-sight which pass
    quite close to the Sun. The importance of Hipparcos's being able
    to measure light bending > 90 degrees away from the Sun is for a
    completey different region: to maintain a stable thermal environment,
    Hipparcos was designed to *never* point its instantaneous lines-of-sight
    close to the Sun.
    -- jt]]

    Not to mention Parker probe. Notice, contrary to assumptions,
    it provided many new unexpected properties of the Corona.
    3. We actually know the Sun's density profile (and hence its quadrupole moment J_2, which is what you're referring to) very well, thanks to helioseismology measurements .
    We don't "know". We assume. Don't forget the basic rule of physics.
    Assumption is not an observation.

    [[Mod. note -- Arxiv:1103.1707 outlines some of the observations and
    analysis (as of 10 years ago). It's pretty impressive. -- jt]]

    You can't (correctly) model the observed
    precession of Mercury (not to mention those of Venus, Earth, and Mars,
    all of whose orbital precessions are also well-observed) using Newtonian gravity and the Solar mass distribution.
    Yes you can. Le Verrier did in his 1859 paper. Correctly. Or as close
    as correct could be in 1859 due to uncertain measurements available
    at the time.
    He even is on the record for saying it wasn't neccesarily Vulcan. He
    only speculated the additional source had to be outside the suns
    theoretical center. And for the standards of the time...his calculations presumably 3 body, were correct. 60 years before Einstein.
    4. Newton never asserted that all of a planet's (or the Sun's) mass was located at its center. Rather, he (correctly) calculated that the
    external gravitational field of an extended spherically symmetric mass
    "Correctly calculated"?
    No he didn't. This is a false claim. If he did....why do his calculations
    not correctly model the preccession of planets like Mercury?

    [[Mod. note -- Newton's calculation of the gravitational field of a
    spherical body (the "shell theorem") is briefly outlined in
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_theorem
    So far as we know, Newton never calculated or modelled planetary
    precessions (I don't think there's any mention of the topic in his
    surviving writings). Much later, Leverrier, Lagrange, and others used
    Newton's shell theorem (among many other mathematical techniques) to
    calculate planetary precession -- including that of Mercury -- within
    the framework of Newtonian gravitatation and mechanics.
    -- jt]]

    distribution is the same as it would be if all the mass were located
    at the center. (Calculating the external gravitational field of an
    extended mass distribution requires calculus, which Newton invented
    in part to address this question.)
    5. Newton was well aware of the possibility of experiments such as the Schiehallion experiment (the measurement of the external gravitational
    field of a mountain), but mistakenly thought that the effects would
    be to small to be accurately measured. Fortunately, he was wrong.
    Newton's *excuse* was that it would be too small to measure. What
    he didn't want to admit was that if it was measureable...then his
    assumption that one can assume that all the mass could be put
    at the center was incorrect. As Mercury's preccession proved.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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