Experimental estimation of Asymmetry of Radiation for Wheeler-Feynman theory for gravitational waves

TL;DR

This paper proposes an experimental approach to estimate the asymmetry of radiation in gravitational waves, testing Wheeler-Feynman theory's symmetric assumption versus observed asymmetries in astrophysical phenomena.

Contribution

It introduces a method to experimentally distinguish between symmetric and asymmetric radiation contributions in gravitational waves, leveraging observations like neutron star mergers and black hole events.

Findings

Gravitational wave data may contain signatures of advanced or retarded waves.

Current observations suggest possible asymmetry in radiation emission.

Proposed method could verify fundamental assumptions of Wheeler-Feynman theory.

Abstract

Maxwell equations mathematically allow both retarded and advanced solutions, also their convex combinations. While Wheeler-Feynman absorber theory assumed their symmetric contributions (1/2-1/2), e.g. inspiraling show Asymmetry of Radiation instead, and currently there dominates unquestioned assumption of 1-0 only retarded. As it should depend on the boundary conditions, like absorber/emitter imbalance - which is essential but not necessarily perfect, we propose to finally verify this assumption experimentally, trying to distinguish it from e.g. 0.99-0.01 contributions. Experimental estimation of such Asymmetry of Radiation is currently difficult for EM waves due to receiver-emitter asymmetry. However, e.g. LIGO just measures lengths, which are invariant to T/CPT symmetry, making available gravitational wave observations appropriate for such estimation, and there are already observed suggestions for advanced waves. For example gravitational observations of e.g. neutron star merger, with required but clearly missing (retarded) EM counterpart, would leave possibility of being advanced wave. Also there are observed events happening too early according to current knowledge e.g. mergers of black holes in the Mass Gap, or insufficient number of retarded sources e.g. for "vibrations of the Universe" observed by Pulsar Timing Arrays.