Spacetime: Arena or Reality?

TL;DR

This paper explores the topological structure of extended Kerr-Newman spacetime, proposing it as a model for elementary particles like electrons, suggesting spacetime's concrete existence influences matter's fundamental properties.

Contribution

It introduces a novel interpretation of Kerr-Newman spacetime topology as a model for particles, linking geometry to mass, charge, and spin emergence.

Findings

Kerr-Newman spacetime can model electron-positron systems.

Topological structures imply half-integer angular momentum states.

Spacetime's topology influences fundamental particle properties.

Abstract

For small values of the mass (in relation to the angular momentum and electric charge), the Kerr-Newman (KN) solution of Einstein equation reduces to a naked singularity of circular shape. By considering the Hawking and Ellis extended interpretation of the KN spacetime, as well as Wheeler's idea of "charge without charge", the non-trivial topological structure of the extended KN spatial section is found to represent gravitational states with half-integral angular momentum. As a consequence, it can be consistently interpreted as a model for the electron-positron system, in which the concepts of mass, charge and spin emerge from the spacetime geometry. According to this model, therefore, instead of a simple arena, spacetime must have a concrete existence, being responsible -- through its highly non-trivial topological structures -- for the building blocks of (at least some of) the existing matter in the universe.