TITLE:
From Dirac’s Aether to the Dirac Equation
AUTHORS:
Richard D. Bateson
KEYWORDS:
Dirac Aether, Lorentz Invariance, Dirac Equation, Quantum Mechanics, Space-Time Lattice, Dirac Spinors, Inertial Mass, Metric Modification, Space-Time Curvature, General Relativity
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of High Energy Physics, Gravitation and Cosmology,
Vol.10 No.4,
September
27,
2024
ABSTRACT: In 1951, Dirac proposed a formalism for a Lorentz invariant Aether with a vacuum state that contains all possible velocity states at each space-time point. Dirac showed no explicit path from the Aether towards the Quantum Mechanics. In this paper, we demonstrate that Dirac’s proposed Aether can be described by a lattice of possible events in space-time built in the local Lorentz frame. The idealised case of single velocity state leads to the famous Dirac equation for a plane wave state and is compatible with quantum statistics. On the lattice, possible space-time events are connected by the Dirac spinors which provide the probability of observing an event. The inertial mass of a particle is shown to be equivalent to the density of possible events on the lattice. Variation of the lattice density of events modifies the metric and provides a space-time curvature leading to the Hilbert action associated with general relativity. In classical limit, the perturbation in the density of possible events of the Aether is proportional to the Newtonian gravitational potential.