Dear George Gantz,
nice to enter a conversation with another grandfather.
I have read your brilliant essay which to a great extent summarizes my own conclusions after having followed the progress of science during more than six decades. My main source being a subscribtion on Scientific American since 1968 and the references it provides.
Many years ago it occurred to me that the description of the development of our universe was also a description of an ever proceeding merging to larger and larger lumps, beginning with the most primordial constituents.
From your essasy I quote two sentences: "When energy is in flux, stable structures tend to emerge in the otherwise chaotic flow by dissipating energy. In a similar way, galaxies and snowflakes form in the dynamic chaos of interstellar gas or atmospheric clouds."
To me they reflect the same thinking that led me to inquire: Is there a mathematical law that describes the consequenses of this aggregation process? I took me many years of struggling thinking to finally one day, Heureka! The very simple equation d = в€› ВЅ a Г-- b. I refer to page 1 of my essay.
You asked me to clarify what acts on the objects when they aggregate.
In my thinking I tried to first treat the process theoretically.
The objects have only one property in addition to their momentum: When they encounter, they stick together.
Imagine the objects as burdock burrs. The hooks and their properties representing whatever physical law causing the "sticking together".
It must be a piece of cake to simulate such a process with a computer. I have not found anyone interested in doing such a simulation. I don't possess the computational skill to do it. May be a simulation will prove my equation wrong or to have another composition.
If the equation is proven correct the next step will be: Is it applicable to the real world?
Then one has to consider the nature of the objects and the physical laws involved in the merging process. But probably the conclusion would be that regardless of the nature of the objects and of the kind of forces engaged in the aggregation the objects and lumps will behave according to d = в€› ВЅ a Г-- b.
I wouldn't mind if someone could smash my thesis to pieces, because that would be a relief from the prospect that it is true with all its implications.
If the mathematical description of this physical relationship is correct and it is applicable also to the cosmological reality, it certainly will give rise to changed aims and intentions related to the description of the development of our universe, because the interpretation of all observational data regarding the movements of the galaxies must be reassessed taking into account that almost all of the trillions of galaxies have gone through mergers, with the consequense that merged galaxies recede from each other without any need of an expanding universe.
And as the concept of an expanding universe is based solely on observations made by Hubble and his successors on the assumption that the observed galaxies have not experienced any mergers (or if, this has been considered insignificant in the context), the outcome of such a reassessment could be that either our universe is not expanding at all, or expanding at a much lower rate than the current estimate, otherwise it would have been impossible for the observed galaxy mergers to take place.