Abstract

Previously, the author proposed that graviton energy and photon energy are everywhere being interconverted at fractional rates proportional to the Hubble constant H0. Evidence for the postulated graviton decay was suggested to lie in observable planetary heating and expansion. The greatest quantity of gravitational potential energy associated with a mass resides in its interactions with the most distant matter of the visible universe. Assuming that this graviton energy is also decaying to photons, then long wavelength electromagnetic radiation is being generated almost uniformly at every point in space. A universe in equilibrium requires that this radiation is reconverted to gravitons at the same relative rate, closing the energy cycle. Supposing that photons are reconverted to gravitons through absorption by matter, a simple mechanism for universal gravitation can be developed. In a mechanism analogous to Le Sage's and Brush's theories of gravity, bodies mutually screen each other from a portion of the radio photon background and consequently are pushed towards each other. It is shown that Newton's law is reproduced and some possible connections to the General Theory of Relativity are discussed. Lastly, it is suggested that the luminosities of neutron stars, white dwarfs and black holes may be primarily due to graviton decay therein.