Anticipative effect in relativistic physical systems, exemplified by the perihelion of the Mercury planet

Daniel M. DUBOIS
Centre for Hyperincursion and Anticipation in Ordered Systems
CHAOS asbl, Institute of Mathematics, B37
University of Liege
Grande Traverse 12
B-4000 LIEGE 1, Belgium
Fax: ? 32 (0) 4 366 94 89 - Email: Daniel.Dubois@ulg.ac.be
http://www.ulg.ac.be/mathgen/CHAOS

Keywords : anticipation, Newton gravitation, General Relativity, Mercury perihelion

Abstract

Anticipation seems to be an anti-causation, because a future event can produce an effect in the present time. A fundamental question is : are actual systems really causal ? In looking in equations of physics, there is no evidence that causation plays a central role or even exists ! What physics learn to us is that natural evolution of systems obeys invariance, like the conservation of energy, for example. All physics can be explained and understood without any causation but with the conservation of some properties, in reference to the very famous Noether Theorem.

It was shown that anticipation is a fundamental property in the propagation of electromagnetic waves. The relativistic Lorentz Transformation is fundamentally anticipatory. The anticipation behind this transformation is a strong anticipation, because this is embedded in the natural laws. This leads to the invariance of the velocity of referential frames. The electromagnetic waves, propagating at the speed of light, propagate with anticipation leading to an instantaneous action at a distance. But there is no instantaneous propagation of energy, so a perturbation will propagate at the speed of light.

In this paper, it will be demonstrated that the anticipation is still more fundamental in theoretical physics. The space-time curvature in general relativity is a pure anticipatory property. The Newton law of gravitation is based on an instantaneous propagation of gravity, and the Newtonian equations for the solar system, for example, work rather well, except for the anomalous perihelion of the planet Mercury. General relativity explains this aberration. In taking into account the retarded gravitational potential in the Newtonian equation, the equation of general relativity is obtained in introducing anticipative propagation of the gravitational field. The anticipation is stronger than for the electromagnetic field, because it is dependent not only on the velocity but also on the acceleration.