# Force, metric, or mass: Disambiguating causes of uniform gravity

## TL;DR

This paper explores how nonzero forces, spacetime metrics, and Higgs field variations can all produce uniform gravity effects, proposing methods to distinguish their causes through particle motion analysis.

## Contribution

It introduces the idea that Higgs field gradients can cause apparent universal accelerations, offering a new perspective on gravity's origins and potential experimental tests.

## Key findings

- Higgs gradients can mimic gravitational acceleration effects.
- Different causes of acceleration produce distinct particle trajectories.
- Discrepancies are extremely small on laboratory scales, challenging experimental detection.

## Abstract

In addition to nonzero forces and nontrivial metrics, here I show that a nonconstant Higgs expectation value, which endows elementary particles with their masses, also leads to apparent universal particle accelerations and photon frequency shifts. When effects of the Higgs is attributed to spacetime curvatures, a spurious stress-energy tensor is required in Einstein's equation. On cosmological scales, the spurious density coincides with the observed dark energy density. On smaller scales, effects of the Standard Model Higgs gradients are unlikely observable except near compact astrophysical bodies. To estimate the experimental precision required to disambiguate causes of apparent accelerations, I compare distinct effects of the force, metric, and Higgs profiles that cause uniform acceleration of a test particle. When the acceleration is caused by a force, the motion of all particles are hyperbolic with the same acceleration. However, when the cause is a metric, only a one-parameter family of particles undergo hyperbolic motion. In comparison, when the cause is a Higgs gradient, the trajectory of all particles are hyperbolic, but the acceleration is larger when the particle's energy is higher. The discrepancies among the three causes are minuscule on laboratory scales, which makes experimental tests very challenging.