Emergent gravity and ether-drift experiments

TL;DR

This paper explores the idea that gravity may emerge from a superfluid-like vacuum medium, predicting tiny anisotropies in light propagation that could be detected through ether-drift experiments, supporting emergent gravity theories.

Contribution

It provides experimental analysis of ether-drift data showing a consistent signal amplitude aligning with emergent gravity predictions, considering stochastic fluctuations of the quantum ether.

Findings

Measured signal amplitude < A > = O(10^{-15}) consistent across experiments

Tiny anisotropies in light propagation support emergent gravity models

Stochastic fluctuations may mimic instrumental noise, affecting interpretation

Abstract

According to several authors, gravity might be a long-wavelength phenomenon emerging in some 'hydrodynamic limit' from the same physical, flat-space vacuum viewed as a form of superfluid medium. In this framework, light might propagate in an effective acoustic geometry and exhibit a tiny anisotropy that could be measurable in the present ether-drift experiments. By accepting this view of the vacuum, one should also consider the possibility of sizeable random fluctuations of the signal that reflect the stochastic nature of the underlying `quantum ether' and could be erroneously interpreted as instrumental noise. To test the present interpretation, we have extracted the mean amplitude of the signal from various experiments with different systematics, operating both at room temperature and in the cryogenic regime. They all give the same consistent value < A > = O (10^{-15}) which is precisely the magnitude expected in an emergent-gravity approach, for an apparatus placed on the Earth's surface. Since physical implications could be substantial, it would be important to obtain more direct checks from the instantaneous raw data and, possibly, with new experimental set-ups operating in gravity-free environments.