In quantum field theory, if gravity isn’t a fundamental force, how does it emerge? This article describes a theory of deep quantum electromagnetic interactions. Photon transactions (emission / absorption) populate a relational network of events which structures spacetime.
According to the theory, each transaction gives rise to a pair of events in spacetime, effectively stitching together a network of relationships that form what we perceive as space and time.
Shades of Rovelli? With thermodynamics.
… the researchers apply the principles of thermodynamics, particularly the concept of entropy, to explain why matter attracts other matter.
But no mention of flux or gradients (just perhaps contours or structure of the density of state interactions). Any connection to entanglement? Topology?
• Advanced Science News > “New theory suggests gravity is not a fundamental force” by Andrey Feldman (Apr 21, 2025) – Spacetime arises from photon exchanges.
The work, published in Journal of Physics Communications, reimagines gravity not as a force stitched into the fabric of spacetime, but as something that arises from the quantum-level behavior of ordinary matter. Ruth Kastner of the University of Maryland and Andreas Schlatter at the Quantum Institute in New York developed a framework in which space and time themselves are not fundamental but result from electromagnetic interactions between charged systems like atoms and molecules.
“The creation of a real photon creates ‘the fabric of spacetime’ by giving rise to spacetime events and their structural connection; namely the emission event, the absorption event, and the real photon which links these,” said Kastner. “In short, spacetime events, along with their structural connections, emerge from these transactions.”
Here’s an article about a spacetime model using three spatial & two temporal dimensions – as a causal explanation of entanglement.
• Physics World > Quantum Mechanics > Research Update > “Could an extra time dimension reconcile quantum entanglement with local causality?” by Tim Wogan (25 Apr 2025) – Extending nonlocal hidden variable theories, a hypothetical experiment suggests that “the [wavefunction] collapse could propagate through the extra time dimension.”
Marco Pettini, a theoretical physicist at Aix Marseille University in France, says the idea arose from conversations with the mathematical physicist Roger Penrose …
[To the contrary] Bub [Jeffrey Bub], now a distinguished professor emeritus at the University of Maryland, College Park, is not holding his breath. “I’m intrigued by [Pettini] exploiting my old hidden variable paper with Bohm to develop his two-time model of entanglement, but to be frank I can’t see this going anywhere,” he says. “I don’t feel the pull to provide a causal explanation of entanglement, and I don’t any more think of the ‘collapse’ of the wave function as a dynamical process.”