Autodynamics

Scientific Theory
Name	Autodynamics
Type	Alternative relativistic mechanics (proposed replacement for Special and General Relativity)
Author(s)	Ricardo L Carezani
Keywords	Special Relativity, Lorentz transformation, neutrino, pico-gravity, Compton Effect, Bohr atom
Year	1940s–present
Website	https://www.autodynamics.org/

Autodynamics (AD) is an alternative theory of relativistic mechanics developed by the Argentine physicist Ricardo L. Carezani beginning in the 1940s, and promoted since 1994 by the Society for the Advancement of Autodynamics (SAA). Its central claim is that Einstein's special relativity is built on a redundant use of two reference frames, and that removing the redundant frame yields a simpler, single-frame mechanics which Carezani held to replace both special and general relativity. Autodynamics is not accepted by mainstream physics, which regards it as a fringe or pseudoscientific theory; on this wiki it is documented as a dissident alternative to relativity.

Core ideas

• Frame reduction. Carezani argued that the Lorentz "systems in relative motion" from which special relativity is derived contain a second reference frame that is mathematically and physically redundant. Removing it — the Carezani Frame Reduction — is said to give a new set of transformation equations that remain finite at the speed of light, reduce to Newtonian mechanics at low speed, and contain no paradoxes.
• Mass decreases with velocity. In place of the "relativistic mass increase" of special relativity, Autodynamics holds that a moving body must eject part of its mass in order to accelerate — much like a rocket — so that its rest mass decreases and the lost mass is converted to kinetic energy.
• No neutrino. Carezani held that the neutrino was invented only to preserve energy conservation within the relativistic equations of beta decay. Autodynamics claims to describe beta decay and nucleus–nucleus collisions without invoking a neutrino.
• Pico-gravity. Gravity is modelled as a particle interaction mediated by a hypothetical picograviton, in the spirit of Le Sage-type "push" gravity, rather than as spacetime curvature. The theory also posits other unobserved particles, such as the electromuon.

Applications and claims

Proponents claim Autodynamics reproduces or improves on a range of results without the machinery of relativity or quantum wave mechanics:

• a revised Compton Effect equation;
• a derivation of Bohr's atomic equations without wave equations;
• additional decay modes for the muon (muon decay);
• nucleus–nucleus collisions without the neutrino;
• a gravitational mechanism said to account for the perihelion advance of all bodies (including binary stars), the apparent Pioneer slowdown, the Allais anomaly, and lunar distancing.

History

• 1940 – As an engineering student at Tucumán University, Carezani began questioning special relativity as it applies to decay cases.
• 1945 – Carezani considered the foundations of Autodynamics complete.
• 1947 – He received his doctorate in physics from Tucumán University, Argentina.
• 1951 – His first book on Autodynamics was published in Argentina and, by his account, blacklisted by the National Atomic Energy Commission; only about 300 copies were printed.
• 1979–1981 – After Argentina's political reopening, Carezani emigrated to the United States, settling in California.
• 1982 – An accelerator experiment testing Autodynamics against special relativity was carried out at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC); the results were published in Physical Review A in 1984.
• 1994 – The Society for the Advancement of Autodynamics was founded in Southern California by David de Hilster, Carezani and Amnon Meyers.
• 2005 – Publication of Autodynamics: Storm in Physics.
• 2016 – Carezani died.

The Stanford experiment

In 1982 a calorimetric experiment associated with H. Pierre Noyes of SLAC compared the energy predicted for accelerated electrons by special relativity and by Autodynamics. The measured values agreed with special relativity and not with Autodynamics. Carezani responded that the test was not a valid comparison, arguing that Autodynamics applies specifically to spontaneous decay, whereas in the accelerator the electrons continuously received energy from an external klystron electromagnetic field.

Reception

Autodynamics has been rejected by the mainstream physics community and is generally described as fringe or pseudoscience. H. Pierre Noyes stated that "autodynamics was disproved; special relativity is correct," and that physicists had "considered autodynamics a crackpot theory for decades"; the physicist Lee Smolin noted that its supporters had made "no serious attempt ... to make an argument or to discuss experimental data that refute their basic claims." Its advocates, organised through the SAA, continue to argue that the theory has never been fairly tested on the decay cases for which it was designed.

New York Times advertisement (2015)

On June 9, 2015, a paid advertisement headed "Autodynamics: new paradigm in physics-cosmology" appeared in the Science Times section of The New York Times (page D3). Placed by the Society for the Advancement of Autodynamics of Long Beach, California, it set out Autodynamics equations and diagrams and stated that the theory "removes all the misconceptions of Lorentz and Einstein," offering "a new approach to see the universe."

The placement drew criticism from the mainstream physics press. In an opinion piece for Physics Today (published by the American Institute of Physics) on June 18, 2015, media analyst Steven T. Corneliussen argued that by accepting the advertisement the Times risked lending credibility to a theory that the physics community regards as discredited, in tension with the newspaper's usual standards of skeptical science journalism. The episode briefly brought Autodynamics back to public notice, some sixteen years after a 1999 Wired article had likewise covered the theory.

Related pages

• Ricardo L Carezani — the theory's originator
• Carezani Frame Reduction
• Society for the Advancement of Autodynamics
• Autodynamics: Fundamental Basis for a New Relativistic Mechanics
• Autodynamics: Storm in Physics
• Autodynamics: a Comprehensive Replacement for Special Relativity
• David de Hilster

External links

• Autodynamics.org — the Society for the Advancement of Autodynamics
• Autodynamics at Beyond Mainstream
• Autodynamics on Wikipedia