TY - JOUR
T1 - A cosmological basis for E = mc 2
AU - Melia, Fulvio
N1 - Funding Information:
I am grateful to the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias in Tenerife and to Purple Mountain Observatory in Nanjing, China for their hospitality while part of this work was carried out. I also acknowledge partial support from the Chinese Academy of Sciences Visiting Professorships for Senior International Scientists under grant 2012T1J0011, and from the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs under grant GDJ20120491013.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 World Scientific Publishing Company.
PY - 2019/4/10
Y1 - 2019/4/10
N2 - The Universe has a gravitational horizon with a radius Rh = c/H coincident with that of the Hubble sphere. This surface separates null geodesics approaching us from those receding, and as free-falling observers within the Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker space-time, we see it retreating at proper speed c, giving rise to the eponymously named cosmological model Rh = ct. As of today, this cosmology has passed over 20 observational tests, often better than νCDM. The gravitational radius Rh therefore appears to be highly relevant to cosmological theory, and in this paper we begin to explore its impact on fundamental physics. We calculate the binding energy of a mass m within the horizon and demonstrate that it is equal to mc2. This energy is stored when the particle is at rest near the observer, transitioning to a purely kinetic form equal to the particle's escape energy when it approaches Rh. In other words, a particle's gravitational coupling to that portion of the Universe with which it is causally connected appears to be the origin of rest-mass energy.
AB - The Universe has a gravitational horizon with a radius Rh = c/H coincident with that of the Hubble sphere. This surface separates null geodesics approaching us from those receding, and as free-falling observers within the Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker space-time, we see it retreating at proper speed c, giving rise to the eponymously named cosmological model Rh = ct. As of today, this cosmology has passed over 20 observational tests, often better than νCDM. The gravitational radius Rh therefore appears to be highly relevant to cosmological theory, and in this paper we begin to explore its impact on fundamental physics. We calculate the binding energy of a mass m within the horizon and demonstrate that it is equal to mc2. This energy is stored when the particle is at rest near the observer, transitioning to a purely kinetic form equal to the particle's escape energy when it approaches Rh. In other words, a particle's gravitational coupling to that portion of the Universe with which it is causally connected appears to be the origin of rest-mass energy.
KW - General relativity
KW - exact solutions
KW - mathematical and relativistic aspects of cosmology
KW - observational cosmology
KW - relativity and gravitation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85064859246&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85064859246&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1142/S0217751X19500556
DO - 10.1142/S0217751X19500556
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85064859246
SN - 0217-751X
VL - 34
JO - International Journal of Modern Physics A
JF - International Journal of Modern Physics A
IS - 10
M1 - 1950055
ER -