Gravity is one of the four fundamental interactions in the universe, but it’s not a force since it has no messenger (carrier) particle that transmits it. (Gravitons are similar to tachyons: they don’t exist.)
The electromotive force is transmitted by photons.
The strong nuclear force is transmitted by gluons.
These two forces, photons and gluons, seem to be the only forms of massless energy that we are aware of. Photons act over an infinite distance, whereas gluons travel only within a proton to bind the quarks that make up a proton.
The weak nuclear force is transmitted by w and z particles (which do have invariant mass, better known as rest mass). Rest means that, if a particle of energy could stop moving at c, it would literally have zero mass - in other words, all the mass of an energy particle is a result of its momentum.
The leads to another phenomenon I’ve been trying to better understand, which is how do attractive forces work, such as the attraction of the north and south pole of a magnet? While this interaction seems as obvious as gravity, at first glance, I’m wondering if it’s truly an attractive force? Rather, could it be a push force where the space between the north and south poles creates an “energy vacuum” or lower energy state? In other words, is what we see as an attraction actually the magnets being pushed into a lower energy state from the space or forces around it?
How does attraction work? Good question. I came to imagine repulsion in a classical sense. I can imagine “pushing.” For example, classically, I can envision two atoms emitting photons directed at each other like two people standing in a rowboat while throwing a ball back and forth to each other. The ball leaving one person’s hands is analogous to a photon emitted from an atom. As this process continues, the boats, like the atoms, are pushed apart. They’re repulsed. So, how do we imagine an attractive force?
Additionally, it seems that gravity doesn’t originate outward from mass, rather inward; otherwise, how could the gravity of a black hole be detected outside the event horizon? How could a fictitious graviton travel faster than light to escape out of the event horizon?
Rather, it appears that the Cosmos (spacetime) is flowing, like a river, into mass. Crossing the event horizon is analogous to going over a waterfall.
A final thought…
What happens or what exists in the space where the event horizons of two black holes overlap? The flow of the spacetime aether would be in opposite directions. Would it simply be a void of nothingness? 🤷♂️
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