Is it conceivable that matter causes 'drag' in the flow of time which we perceive as mass? I have wondered this as:

 

Photons are not subject to time as they have no mass so cause no 'drag'

Gravity causes time to slow down

Mass causes gravity

 

Is matter/mass an effect of/on the passage of time?

Are you familiar with general relativity? Some of your ideas can be understood in this context. I suggest you read up on GR.

Edited July 17, 201114 yr by ajb

Well I am quite familiar with GR, but I don't think it agrees with my hypothesis - at least not directly. Can you expand?

Photons are not subject to time...

 

As there is no way to define an inertial rest frame for photon there is no way to attach a "proper time" to the motion of a photon. Thus, in this respect they are not subject to time.

 

Gravity causes time to slow down

 

Gravity is identified with the local geometry of space-time. So, gravity definitely effects what we mean by distance and duration. More to the point we have gravitational time dilation.

 

Mass causes gravity

 

Really it is energy-momentum that acts as a source of the gravitational field in general relativity.

 

Is matter/mass an effect of/on the passage of time?

 

I am not sure how to answer this. In general relativity matter courses space-time to have a non-trivial local geometry and the local geometry tells matter how to move. Definitely matter effects time via gravity.

Thanks. Would you agree that the search for 'Gravitons' is futile, as it would actually be a search for quanta of time?

Thanks. Would you agree that the search for 'Gravitons' is futile, as it would actually be a search for quanta of time?

 

Directly detecting gravitational waves, which are the classical version of gravitions has proved to be very difficult. So, for sure today we would not expect to be able to observe gravitons. As gravitons would act only very weakly with matter and so would be near impossible to detect with any equipment, but not necessarily outlawed by any physical laws. Maybe in the future people will come up with new ways of potentially observing gravitons.

But are not gravity waves actually time waves? I.e. Gravity is just an effect of time differentials between slower and faster moving time?

But are not gravity waves actually time waves?

 

They are ripples in the geometry of space-time.