The Aether’s Role in Electron-Positron Pair Production

I have in my books proposed an aether made up of low energy photons and neutrinos. The reason being that this would explain the spontaneous appearances and disappearances of photons in the production of light. It would also explain the equally spontaneous appearance of neutrinos in nuclear processes. The electric, magnetic and gravitational forces can in turn be explained as high and low pressure areas in the aether. It also clarifies how and why electron-positron pairs are created from energetic photons.

The aether as a fluid

The aether can be thought of as a dense fluid where every particle moves at the speed of light. The particles carry no weight or energy. But their high density forces them to move in synchrony. If one aether particle moves, all adjacent particles opaque to it will have to move in order to accommodate for the displacement.

By opaque, we mean that the aether cannot move through it. As opposed to transparent particles through which aether particles can move.

Opaque and transparent particles

It follows from the above that any particle opaque to the aether will have to move at the same speed as the particles of the aether. Neutrinos and photons, being opaque to the aether, are therefore forced to move at this exact speed.

For particles to move at a speed different from the speed of light, they have to be transparent to the aether. This is the case for inertial matter through which aether particles can move freely.

So, photons and neutrinos must move at the speed of light because they are opaque to the aether, while inertial matter can move at varying speeds because it is transparent to the aether.

Energy transfers

The aether may be able to absorb some energy from energetic photons and neutrinos. But this takes a lot of time and happens only in minuscule amounts, if at all. So, for the purpose of this post, we can assume that the aether is incapable of absorbing any energy from energetic photons.

Energy transfers only happen between opaque particles and inertial matter.

Electron-positron pair production

From this, we can go on to explain the phenomenon of electron-positron pair production in more detail.

Let us consider a gamma-ray photon encountering a barrier of some kind. The photon is opaque to the aether. So, it has to zip past this barrier or reflect off of it in a way that keeps its speed unchanged. Otherwise, the aether around it will become like a wall.

Any kind of acceleration or deceleration will be rejected by the surrounding aether. Unable to keep its speed in harmony with the aether, the gamma-ray photon must either yield its energy to its surroundings or transform itself into inertial matter.

If the photon is in contact with inertial matter, energy can be absorbed from the photon, leaving the photon intact, but with less energy. However, if there’s no inertial matter adjacent to it, the photon must transform itself into inertial matter. It must break into an electron-positron pair.

Photons cannot remain in an in-between state. They must either remain photons, moving at the speed of light, or become electrons and positrons, and thus transparent to the aether.