A Novel Idea

We are to admit no more causes of natural things than such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearances. – Isaac Newton

During his days as a graduate student and postdoc in astrophysics, Dr. Buchalter often struggled with commonly-accepted paradigms in cosmology, such as inflation and dark energy, which seemed to explain a phenomenon that was not understood by introducing a new idea or mechanism which itself was not understood – and which had no physical motivation to exist, other than to explain the original phenomenon. Dr. Buchalter believed that “new theories should not merely replace one ignorance with another.” However, as a young scientist planning to build a career in astrophysics research, he was reluctant to challenge these canonical concepts in his research.

In 2004, three years after leaving science as a profession, Dr. Buchalter decided to revisit this line of thought. He noted another area where there appeared to be “placeholders for ignorance” in physics – namely, in the so-called physical constants. While some constants, such as the Rydberg, have historically been revealed to be comprised of other more fundamental quantities, other constants such as the speed of light (c), the gravitational constant (G), and Planck's constant (h), are of seemingly primary significance. Though ubiquitous throughout physics over decades or centuries, the underlying meaning and significance of these dimensional constants remains unclear: why are they present in the equations of physics, and why do they take on the values they do? If precedent suggests that constants might be viewed as placeholders for as yet undiscovered physics in our theories, then one of the challenges of physics is surely to reveal the physical meaning of these parameters. Indeed, it might be generally supposed that as physics progresses, fewer constants will be required as more fundamental theories are put forth, and that a true "theory of everything" might contain no such quantities, explaining nature from first principles alone.

Following a Machian line of reasoning, Dr. Buchalter conjectured that these “placeholder” constants were not in fact constant, but somehow fundamentally related to the global dynamics of the cosmic expansion. Many others had previously explored the notion that physical constants might vary over time, and moreover had formulated theories describing this variation that can address a range of cosmological problems. But these theories lacked a fundamental explanation of what the constants actually were and why they varied (typically only exploring some ad hoc or heuristic assumption for the variation), and failed to address some observations such as apparent cosmic acceleration from Type Ia supernova light curves.

In a 2004 paper entitled “On the time variation of c, G, and h and the dynamics of the cosmic expansion,” Dr. Buchalter examined the dimensional properties of the constants, and postulated physically-motivated definitions for the so-called constants, relating c, G, and h respectively to the time variation of the linear scale factor, volume, and surface area of the Universe. In this theory, variation in the “constants” is not due to an assumed parameterization, but rather arises naturally from their physical definitions – and means that massless particle propagation, gravity, and quantization all arise as natural consequences of the cosmic expansion.

Together with a postulated conservation law and equations of motion, Dr. Buchalter put forth the Varying Physical Parameter theory, and explored the implications of this theory in a Friedmann model arriving at several extremely interesting conclusions including:

The prediction of a flat, Ω 0 = 1 universe that is decelerating and contains no dark energy.

= 1 universe that is decelerating and contains no dark energy. A natural solution to the so-called “horizon problem” (whereby the horizon grows faster than the scale factor, making it seemingly impossible for causally disconnected regions of the sky to have same CMB temperature) without the need for inflation, by virtue of c having been greater in the past.

A natural solution to the so-called “flatness problem” (whereby small deviations from Ω 0 = 1 would have been magnified by orders of magnitude by the curvature term in the present epoch, suggesting incredible fine tuning) by virtue a flat Ω 0 = 1 universe.

= 1 would have been magnified by orders of magnitude by the curvature term in the present epoch, suggesting incredible fine tuning) by virtue a flat Ω = 1 universe. A natural solution to the Lambda problem (whereby the density of matter & energy species should have decayed rapidly relative to the dark energy density, yet they are of comparable magnitude today) by virtue of a zero cosmological constant.

An apparent fit to the observations of Type Ia supernovae out to high redshift, without invoking a cosmological constant term.

Potentially testable predictions for the time variation of the physical parameters, including decaying c and growing h that might be measured on human timescales.

Consistency with all other investigated cosmological tests and terrestrial experimental constraints.

Some of the other intriguing features of the Varying Physical Parameter theory include:

Re-derivation of cosmological scaling laws, which preserves most of the currently-accepted relations (e.g., the distance-redshift relation).

A generalized mass conservation law, whereby all species (matter, radiation, etc.) are assumed to have an “equivalent mass” which is globally conserved.

Equivalence between our universe and a black hole, as noted in other theories, and consistency with the Hawking Area Theorem for black holes (with effectively no quantum evaporation).

A definition of “Cosmic Entropy” proportional to the product of the mass of the Universe and time derivative of its area, which can never decrease.

Consistency with the notion of a cosmological holographic principle (whereby information contained in an N-dimensional of space can be represented by a theory specified on the N-1 dimensional surface of that space).

Consistency with the basic postulates of Special Relativity through the interpretation of a preferred time coordinate as the co-moving proper time in the cosmological frame, and predicted energy non-conservation within laboratory limits.

Natural mechanisms relating massless particles propagation (swept along geodesics at the speed of the cosmic expansion), gravity, and quantization to the dynamics of the cosmic expansion.

Excited by the findings and implications of this theory, Dr. Buchalter created the Buchalter Foundation with the dual purpose of:

Facilitating and/or funding investigation into the Varying Physical Parameter theory (those interested in pursuing research in this area should contact the Buchalter Foundation)

Encouraging others to explore innovative and potentially paradigm-challenging new ideas on the cosmic expansion through the creation and endowment of The Buchalter Cosmology Prize

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